At least seven tourists dead after Budapest tour boats collide amid heavy rains on Danube
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/30/hungary-tourist-boat-capsizes-danube-leaving-seven-dead-21-missing/
Hungarian authorities are preparing to salvage the wreck of a sight-seeing boat that sank after a collision on the River Danube in Budapest left at least seven tourists dead and 21 people missing.
The salvage operation forms part of a massive search and rescue mission following the accident that late on Wednesday night when a small sight-seeing boat carrying 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members was struck by one of the massive cruise vessels that ply the length of the Danube.
Concerns were raised on Thursday morning that the tragedy had been an “accident waiting to happen”, as the river had become so congested with tourist boats jostling for space on night tours. Hungarian police on Thursday launched a criminal investigation.
The force of the impact in Wednesday night’s collision sent the smaller boat, the Mermaid, to the bottom of the river but left only scratches on the cruise vessel, a hotel ship owned by Viking Cruises. Seven people were pulled from the water with minor injuries but the fate of the others remains unclear.
In Budapest rescuers have enlisted the help of a river mine sweeper to locate the wreck of the Mermaid.
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