Prospects were minimal on Thursday for finding 20 people missing from a group of South Korean visitors aboard a pleasure boat that capsized on the flooding Danube in the Hungarian capital, killing at least eight, authorities said.
Prospects were minimal on Thursday for finding 20 people missing from a group of South Korean visitors aboard a pleasure boat that capsized on the flooding Danube in the Hungarian capital, killing at least eight, authorities said.
The boat reportedly collided with another tourist vessel near the Hungarian parliament on Wednesday, before turning over on the river, which has been flooding, with very strong currents, while a rainstorm enveloped Budapest.
“I am not inclined to say there is no hope, so I would rather say there is a minimal chance (to find more survivors),” Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman of the Hungarian national ambulance service, told state television.
“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 in reply to a question about the search for the missing.
“The search is underway and we are still on the banks of the Danube river, but chances are minimal.”
In Seoul, President Moon Jae-in said South Korea would work with the Hungarian government to investigate the cause of the accident.
