BUDAPEST — Rescue divers and boats using spotlights and radar scanners made a last-ditch attempt to find survivors on Thursday after a sightseeing boat sank on the River Danube in the Hungarian capital during an evening downpour, leaving seven people confirmed dead and 21 missing.
The dead and 19 of the missing were South Korean tourists who were not wearing life jackets, officials said. The boat collided with a larger cruise ship during a rainstorm, before overturning and sinking, police reported.
A video presented by police showed the Hableany (Mermaid), a 89-foot double-decker cruise boat, heading north next to the much larger Sigyn, from cruise line operator Viking, when the two collided Wednesday night.
Police said the smaller vessel swerved into the larger one, was struck, turned on its side and then sank in seconds. They have opened a criminal investigation into the incident, which took place just after 9 p.m.
Viking said no one aboard its ship was injured and that it is cooperating with authorities. The company, with offices in Switzerland and California, provided no further details.
The ship is now anchored nearby. The collision took place in the heart of Budapest near the ornate parliament building.
The company operating the Hableany, Panorama Deck, expressed its condolences and said it had offered financial aid to all those involved in the accident, adding that the boat and been in its service since 2003 and its 58-year-old captain was an experienced sailor.
Officials in Seoul confirmed that seven South Korean tourists are dead and 19 others are missing. Two Hungarian crew members are also listed as missing.
South Korea’s government said it was sending a team of 33 emergency rescue workers, military experts and officials to Hungary to help with the rescue effort.
“What’s most important is speed,” President Moon Jae-in said at an emergency government meeting. He instructed officials to use “all available resources to help.”
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry and the Very Good Tour Agency, which organized the trip, said 30 South Korean tourists, two tour guides and a photographer, as well two Hungarian crew members, were aboard the boat when it sank.
Seven people were rescued from the water and have been hospitalized, said Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman for Hungary’s National Ambulance Service, according to the Associated Press. They were suffering from hypothermia but stable. Four have since been released and returned to their hotels. Gyorfi expressed doubt that many more survivors would be found.
Water temperatures were between 50 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit (10 and 12 Celsius).
Most of the tourists were traveling with their families, and the group included a 6-year-old girl whose name did not appear on the list of survivors provided by the tour agency, the AP reported. The survivors included six women and one man between the ages of 31 and 66, the news agency said.
With rain continuing, currents swirling and the river flowing fast, rescuers were searching several miles downstream from the accident.
The National Directorate General for Disaster Management said it will be a complex operation to raise the stricken boat from where it sank near the Margit Bridge that connects the two halves of the capital — the twin cities of Buda and Pest — and will likely involve the construction of a pontoon bridge.
The popularity of cruises through the historic heart of Budapest in recent years has resulted in increasing numbers of boats clogging the Danube, raising concerns over possible collisions.
Budapest mayor, Istavan Tarlos, who is seeking reelection in the fall, told the Index online news portal that he was in talks with the relevant ministry about the rules governing these boats and whether they should be allowed into the downtown area.
Denyer reported from Tokyo.
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