The body of the Hungarian captain of the tourist boat Hableány (Mermaid) has been removed from the wreck after the vessel sank on May 29 when she with the cruise ship Viking Sigyn.

The Hableány was brought to the surface on Tuesday, and four victims were recovered, including the captain and the only child that was on the vessel. There were seven survivors in the incident and 24 now confirmed dead, most South Koreans. Four remain missing.

The Hableány, a 27-meter (89-foot) double-decker tourist ship, sank quickly after colliding with the 135-meter (443-foot) Viking Sigyn on the Danube River in Budapest last Wednesday night. The wreck was found on the bed of the river close to one of the pillars of Margaret Bridge. Some of the bodies that were recovered last week were pulled out of the water several miles south of the bridge where the incident occurred, according to a map release by the police.

Questions have been raised about the high amount of traffic on the Danube at the time and the possible tightening of water traffic regulations.

The 64-year-old captain of the Viking Sigyn, who is a Ukrainian citizen, was arrested last Thursday following questioning. The court has ordered that he be detained for a period of 30 days pending prosecution. </s> SALVAGE crews recovered four bodies on Tuesday as they slowly lifted the wreck of a boat two weeks after it capsised.

 It capsised on the Danube River in Budapest with a group of South Korean tourists on board, officials said.

 The Mermaid boat sank in seconds on May 29, after a large cruise liner hit it from behind under a bridge in the Hungarian capital during heavy rain.

 26, tourists, two Hungarian crew died in the worst disaster on the river in half a century.

 The bodies of all but four of the victims have now been recovered.

 One of the bodies was spotted as the captain’s cabin came to the surface, said the spokesman for Hungary’s Special Forces, who are coordinating the recovery operation.

 “Now we will make further checks, in the parts of the boat where there could be further victims,” Nandor Jasenszky said.

 State news agency MTI reported that a total of four victims had been found on Tuesday and recovered by divers.

 Salvage crews saluted in respect as each body was removed.

 Divers had pulled straps under the sunken wreck to allow a huge floating crane to start lifting it.

 Each level of the boat would be searched as it surfaced and the vessel would then be hoisted onto a barge, Jasenszky added.

 The captain of the cruise liner Viking Sigyn, a 64-year-old man identified by police as C. Yuriy from Odessa, Ukraine is being held as a suspect.

 His lawyers said he is devastated but did nothing wrong.

 The captain was held under suspicion of misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties, police have said.

 Swiss-based Viking Cruises Ltd, which owns the Viking Sigyn, has said it is cooperating with Hungarian investigators. </s> BUDAPEST
• Salvage crews recovered four bodies yesterday as they slowly lifted the wreck of a boat from the Danube River in Budapest, two weeks after it capsized with a group of South Korean tourists on board, officials said.

The Mermaid sank in seconds on May 29, after a cruise liner hit it from behind under a bridge in the Hungarian capital during heavy rain. Twenty-six of the tourists and the two Hungarian crew members died in the worst disaster on the river in half a century. The bodies of all but four of the victims have now been recovered.

One of the bodies was spotted as the captain's cabin came to the surface, said the spokesman for Hungary's special forces, who are coordinating the recovery operation.

"Now we will make further checks... in the parts of the boat where there could be further victims," Mr Nandor Jasenszky said.

State news agency MTI reported that a total of four victims were found yesterday and recovered by divers. Salvage crews saluted in respect as each body was removed.

Divers had placed straps under the sunken wreck to allow a huge floating crane to lift it. The Mermaid was lifted onto a barge that will take it to Csepel, an industrial port in south Budapest.

The captain of the cruise liner Viking Sigyn - a 64-year-old man identified as C. Yuriy from Odessa, Ukraine - is being held as a suspect. His lawyers said he is devastated but did nothing wrong.

The captain was held under suspicion of misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties, police said. Swiss-based Viking Cruises, which owns the Viking Sigyn, said it is cooperating with Hungarian investigators. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The tour boat sank seconds after a collision with another vessel

The captain of a vessel that collided with a small tour boat on the Danube in Budapest, resulting in at least seven deaths, has been arrested, police say.

The 64-year-old Ukrainian national was held as a suspect over reckless misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties.

The boat carrying South Korean tourists sank seven seconds after the collision during a rainstorm on Wednesday.

Hopes have faded that any of the 21 people missing will be found alive.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the collision, a rare incident on the Danube where navigation is busy but generally safe.

Seven people rescued alive were suffering from hypothermia but stable, an ambulance spokesman said.

South Korea's foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, is due to arrive in Budapest on Friday for a joint press conference with her Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó.

Witness saw people 'screaming in the water'

CCTV footage showed the boat that sank - Hableany, or Mermaid - being hit from behind by a larger tour boat - Viking Sigyn - near the Margit (Margaret) Bridge in central Budapest after 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

"The whole thing happened very quickly" said Clay Findley, a US tourist who was on the Viking Sigyn.

"I thought at first we were going to miss it, but the front of the Viking hit the back of that little boat... and then the hull popped up on the opposite side of the ship, just a few seconds later, and then it was down."

Image copyright IDOKEP.HU/via REUTERS Image caption This still from CCTV footage shows the two vessels (encircled) just minutes before the collision

Another passenger, 66-year-old Ginger Brinton from the US, told the AFP news agency that he was on the boat's balcony when he "saw people in the water, screaming for help".

He added: "We never felt any bump. We didn't realise. We just saw people in the water. It was just terrible."

No-one on the Swiss-registered Viking Sigyn was injured.

Hungarian police said the investigation yielded evidence that raised questions of personal responsibility so it questioned the captain - identified as Yuriy C., from Odessa - as a suspect and later decided to take him into custody.

Emergency crews found the wreckage of the Hableany, a double-decker river cruise boat built in 1949 in the former Soviet Union, on the riverbed near the Margaret Bridge and were preparing to lift it.

What is known about the rescue operation?

Thirty South Korean tourists and three tour guides, as well as two Hungarian crew, were on board the Hableany.

Most of the tourists were aged between 40 and 50 but the group also included a six-year-old child and a man in his 70s, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Hope was fading that any of the missing would be found alive

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Candles were lit on the Danube bank in Budapest

The seven rescued alive included a 31-year-old passenger identified only by her surname Jung, who told Yonhap: "The current was so fast and people were floating away."

Another survivor, a 32-year-old woman named as Yoon, said: "The boat flipped instantly and capsized."

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Hableany boat - seen in this archive photo - has a capacity of 45 people for sightseeing trips

The rescue operation continued with boats, divers, spotlights, and radar scanning along the river, where the temperature of the water was between 10C and 12C (50F-54F).

But teams warned that, as more time passed, the strong currents caused by heavy rainfall would carry people further downstream, lessening the chances of finding survivors.

The seven confirmed victims were not wearing life jackets and three of them were found several kilometres from the site of the collision, police said.

'An accident waiting to happen'

By Nick Thorpe, BBC News, Budapest

There has been a dramatic increase in river traffic in recent years as tourism increases in Budapest.

Andras Kurbely, a crew member of another large cruise ship with 27 years of experience on the Danube, told the BBC that this was an accident he and others have long worried about.

"It's just not healthy to have so many large ships, which are much more powerful and harder to manoeuvre, carving a route between so many smaller boats."

In his view, the practice of the river cruisers, which sail up and down the river between the five main bridges as an after-dinner excursion for their passengers, should be stopped.

What has the reaction been?

Relatives of the passengers were travelling from South Korea to Hungary.

Meanwhile, flowers were laid outside the country's embassy in Budapest and candles were lit on the Danube bank.

Earlier, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his government planned "to co-operate with the Hungarian government to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident".

For South Koreans, the sinking is a painful reminder of the Sewol disaster in 2014, the BBC's Laura Bicker in Seoul reports.

The ferry of that name sank off South Korea's Jindo island, killing 304 people, almost all of them schoolchildren on a trip. The ship's captain was later convicted of murder. </s> BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian rescue officials said there was little chance of finding survivors after a boat carrying South Korean tourists sank on the Danube in Budapest, killing at least seven people and leaving 21 people missing.

The boat collided with a much larger luxury passenger boat during a rainstorm late on Wednesday near the parliament building, capsized and sank with some 30 tourists on board. The cause of the collision was under investigation.

“I am not inclined to say there is no hope, so I would rather say there is a minimal chance (of finding survivors),” Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman of the Hungarian national ambulance service, told the m1 state television station.

“This is not just because of the water temperature, but the strong currents in the river, the vapor above the water surface, as well as the clothes worn by the people who fell in,” he said when asked about the search for the missing.

Police said the smaller boat turned on its side and sank within seconds after the collision underneath a bridge.

They said a criminal investigation was under way against “an unknown perpetrator”, involving experts, to determine the cause of the accident. They said the first calls for help came in 10 minutes after the accident happened.

They declined to say if the bigger vessel, the 135-metre Viking Sigyn, sent any signals for help.

Heavy recent rains have left the Danube in spate, and local flooding and the strong currents hampered rescuers, one diver told the state broadcaster m1. Water temperatures ranged from 10 to 12 degrees Celsius (50-54 degrees F), he said.

Officials said the hull of the ill-fated Mermaid, a 27-meter (89-ft) double-decker river cruise boat, had been found on the riverbed just a few hundred meters from its usual mooring point.

A crane ship docked near the wreck early on Thursday in preparation for recovery operations.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and President Janos Ader send their condolences to Seoul. “We are with the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers in these most difficult times,” Orban said, according to his spokesman.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the authorities would work with the Hungarian government to investigate the cause of the accident.

“What’s most important is speed,” Moon said in Seoul.

The foreign ministry said 30 South Korean tourists, including children, three tour guides and two Hungarian crew were on board when the tragedy happened, around 9 p.m. (1900 GMT).

Seven South Koreans were rescued, seven died, and 19 were among the missing, said Kang Hyung-shik, a foreign ministry official. The seven people rescued were suffering from hypothermia but stable, a Hungarian ambulance spokesman said.

The Hungarian authorities confirmed the death toll. The two Hungarian crew members were both missing. Police said the seven people who died had no life vests on.

“We have found the wreckage with a sonar,” police Col. Adrian Pal told a press briefing. “We are looking at ways to extract (the Mermaid) from the river.”

“At this point we cannot confirm or deny whether there are any bodies trapped inside the hull.”

The crash happened extremely fast, according to video footage of a security camera shown by police at the press conference. The bigger boat, catching up from behind at a higher speed, caught the Mermaid’s left side.

Rescue officials deployed boats, divers, floodlights and radar following the accident, scouring the river for several kilometers (miles) downstream from the site of the accident.

The National Ambulance Service extended its search for survivors and victims downstream from the capital Budapest and was on alert along a section further south.

For a while traffic on the river, an important commercial waterway, was suspended on the entire Hungarian stretch of the Danube south of Budapest. However, the ban is now limited to the immediate area around the accident, Hungarian police said.

Officials have yet to determine what led to the collision between the Mermaid and the Viking Sigyn, a 95-room floating hotel of the kind that has multiplied as Danube river cruises gained popularity in recent years.

“We are mobilizing every resource we have to protect human lives,” the Mermaid’s owner, Panorama Deck Ltd., told state media through a spokesman.

The boat - a Soviet model manufactured in 1949 and refurbished in the 1980s - had been in its fleet since 2003, with regular maintenance, it said.

The Sigyn’s operator, Swiss-based Viking Cruises Ltd., acknowledged its vessel had been involved in an incident.

“There were no injuries to Viking crew or Viking guests. We are cooperating with the authorities as required,” a Viking spokesperson said. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Timelapse footage shows the operation to raise the boat from the riverbed

Four more bodies have been recovered after salvage crews raised the wreck of a tourist boat that sank on the Danube in Budapest last month.

A floating crane raised The Mermaid to the surface, allowing divers to enter.

The boat was carrying South Korean tourists when it was hit by a cruise ship and capsized, killing 20 people and leaving eight missing.

Recovery efforts by Hungarian and South Korean teams have been hampered by high water levels in the Danube.

Footage from the scene on Tuesday morning showed the cabin and upper deck of the boat emerge from the water and divers carry out a search for victims still trapped inside.

The four bodies recovered have not been formally identified, but they are believed to be those of the boat's Hungarian captain and three South Koreans including a six-year-old girl - the only child to die in the accident.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hoists lifted the boat and then water was pumped out from the hull

The rest of the 70-year-old boat was then slowly brought to the surface with pumps removing water from the hull to stabilise it, and lifted on to a barge.

One of the divers, Zoltan Papp, said attaching straps to the hull of the boat had been difficult because visibility in the muddy, fast-flowing river had been as low as 10cm (4in) at times.

"It was like being in heavy snowfall or fog," he told Reuters news agency.

At one point in Tuesday's operation, a member of the recovery crew fell into the swollen river and had to be rescued by colleagues.

Another four people are believed to still be missing. After the ship was raised, a police spokesman said search efforts would be doubled to find them.

How did the accident happen?

The Viking Sigyn cruise ship struck the Mermaid just after 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on 29 May as both vessels passed under the Margaret Bridge.

Seven of the 35 people on board were rescued and several bodies quickly recovered, but others were swept away in the swollen river or trapped inside the boat.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The tour boat sank seconds after a collision with another vessel

Police said the boat had sunk within seven seconds of the collision.

"The current was so fast and people were floating away," one survivor, identified only by her surname Jung, told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

More bodies were recovered in the following days, with one pulled from the Danube more than 100km (60 miles) downstream. Excluding the unidentified four recovered on Tuesday, 19 South Korean tourists and a Hungarian crewman are so far confirmed to have died.

The disaster was the worst on the Danube - Europe's second-longest river - in more than 50 years.

What about the investigation?

The wreck of the Mermaid will be taken to a secure location and examined by police, who have launched a criminal investigation.

The Viking Sigyn's captain, named as 64-year-old Ukrainian national Yuriy C, was detained on suspicion of reckless misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties. His lawyers said he was devastated but did nothing wrong.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said his government would co-operate with Hungarian authorities "to thoroughly investigate the incident". </s> BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian salvage crews prepared on Monday to raise the wreck of a pleasure boat that capsized on the Danube river in Budapest, killing 26 South Korean tourists and two local crew.

The Mermaid sank after a large Swiss-owned cruise liner struck it from behind on May 29 as both vessels passed under a 19th century bridge in the Hungarian capital during heavy rain.

It was the worst disaster in half a century on Europe’s longest river, which has become an increasingly popular route for big hotel cruisers.

The bodies of all but eight of the victims have been recovered.

Divers inserted four straps under the sunken wreck to allow a floating crane to lift it, possibly starting on Tuesday morning, according to South Korean Embassy defense attache Song Shun-Keun.

He expressed concern that the ship might break up, or bodies could be dislodged.

“Therefore, Hungarian experts spend a lot of time figuring out how to lift the ship in a good balanced position,” he told reporters.

Hungarian special forces spokesman Nandor Jasenszky said divers had fixed the straps and made all the necessary checks.

“The boat can be lifted soon,” he said, adding that the first phase, when the wreck is raised off the riverbed, will be critical.

Once the captain’s deck appears, they will stop and search for the body of the captain before continuing to lift the boat very slowly.

“It cannot be excluded that something happens to the hull (during the process) but we are hoping it won’t,” Jasenszky added.

The wreck will be placed on a barge before the police take over the investigation.

The Viking Sigyn cruise liner’s captain, a 64-year-old Ukrainian man identified by police as C. Yuriy, is being held as a suspect. His lawyers said he was upset but did nothing wrong.

Seven South Koreans were saved and 20 of the victims’ bodies have been recovered. On a nearby embankment, people have placed flowers, candles and teddy bears.

“I sincerely hope the missing bodies can be retrieved and brought back to their families to rest,” said South Korean tourist Lee Seung Hwan who was standing by the river. </s> Rescue workers are scouring the Danube River in Budapest for 21 people missing after a sightseeing boat carrying South Korean tourists sank in a matter of seconds after colliding with a larger cruise ship during an evening downpour.

Rescue workers are scouring the Danube River in Budapest for 21 people missing after a sightseeing boat carrying South Korean tourists sank in a matter of seconds after colliding with a larger cruise ship during an evening downpour.

Seven dead after tourist boat sinks ‘in seven seconds’ in Budapest

Seven people are confirmed dead and seven were rescued, Hungarian officials said.

The South Korea-based Very Good Tour agency, which organised the trip, said the boat had been on its way back after an hour-long night tour on Wednesday evening when the accident happened.

Nineteen South Koreans and two Hungarian crew members are missing.

The tour party had consisted of 30 tourists, two guides and a photographer on a package tour of Europe.

Pal Gyorfi, spokesman for the National Ambulance Service, said those rescued were in hospital in a stable condition.

The sunken boat was located early on Thursday near the Margit Bridge, not far from the neo-Gothic parliament building on the riverbank.

Police Colonel Adrian Pal said the boat turned on its side and sank in about seven seconds.

He said that rescue operations were hampered by the rain and the fast flow of the rising Danube.

The search for the 21 missing extended far downstream, even into Serbia, where the Danube goes after leaving Hungary.

The river, which is 450 metres wide at the point of the accident, was fast-flowing and rising as heavy rain continued in the city.

Water temperatures were about 10C to 12C (50F-53F).

Earlier, news website Index.hu said one of those rescued was found near the Petofi Bridge, which is about three kilometres (two miles) south of parliament.

Dozens of rescue personnel, including from the military and divers, were involved in the search.

Employees from the South Korean embassy in Budapest were assisting Hungarian officials in identifying those rescued and the deceased.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in instructed officials to employ “all available resources” to support the rescue efforts in Hungary.

Mr Moon’s spokeswoman Ko Min-jung said in Seoul that Mr Moon also ordered the launch of a government task force led by foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha and for officials to maintain close communication with the family members of the South Korean passengers.

A team of South Korean officials left for Hungary on Thursday to assist with the rescue operations and support passengers and their families. Ms Kang was also to travel to Hungary.

The ministry said the Seoul government will closely co-operate with Hungarian officials so that the rescue efforts can proceed swiftly and effectively.

It said the tourists were not wearing life jackets.

The Very Good Tour agency said the tourists left South Korea on May 25 and were supposed to return on June 1.

Most of them were family groups and they included a six-year-old girl.

Senior agency official Lee Sang-moo disclosed the identities of the seven rescued South Koreans – six women and one man, aged between 31 and 66.

The company is arranging for family members of the tourists to travel to Hungary as soon as possible.

The boat that sank was identified as the Hableany (Mermaid), which is described on the sightseeing company’s website as “one of the smallest members of the fleet”.

It has two decks and a capacity for 60 people, or 45 for sightseeing cruises.

Mihaly Toth, a spokesman for the Panorama Deck boating company, said the Hableany was on a “routine city sightseeing trip” when the accident happened.

He told state television that he had no information about any technical problems with the boat, which he said was serviced regularly.

Hajoregiszter.hu, a local ship-tracking website, lists the Hableany as having been built in 1949 in what was then the Soviet Union.

Cruise line operator Viking said one of its ships was involved in the collision.

Viking said in a statement that its ship Sigyn was near a Hungarian tourist boat “when it was involved in an incident” on the river at 9pm local time.

It said no-one aboard the Viking ship was injured and that it is co-operating with the authorities.

The company, which has offices in Switzerland and California, provided no further details.

The Margit Bridge connects the two halves of the city, Buda and Pest, with a large recreational island in the middle of the Danube.

It is the bridge just north of the famous Chain Bridge, a suspension bridge originally built in the 19th century that, like the parliament, is a major tourist draw in the heart of the city.

The river flows south, meaning that survivors were likely to be swept through the well-populated, historic part of the city.

Index.hu reported that other riverboats shone spotlights into the water to aid with the search, and that a film crew operating on the Liberty Bridge farther down the river directed its lighting equipment towards the Danube to assist.

In recent years, Budapest has emerged as a popular destination for film, television and other commercial video production.

Budapest has enjoyed a boom in overseas tourism in recent years.

Long-haul flights from as far away as Dubai and Beijing increasingly fly visitors from Asia and the Middle East to the Hungarian capital, a relatively affordable but history-rich European destination.

Budapest’s airport said it handled a record number of travellers in 2018, with passenger numbers surging more than 13% to 14.9 million. </s> BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian police late on Thursday said it had taken into custody the captain of a cruise ship involved in an accident on the Danube River in central Budapest that killed at least seven South Korean tourists on Wednesday.

The captain is a 64-year-old Ukrainian citizen identified as C. Yury, from Odessa, whose arrest was initiated for reckless misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties, police said on its website.
The captain of the M/V Viking Sigyn that was involved in the deadly sinking of the Hableány is questioned and arrested by the Hungarian police.