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Police identify 27th victim of Hungary boat sinking
BUDAPEST, July 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Hungarian police said Saturday they had
identified the 27th victim of the sinking of a boat carrying South Korean
tourists in the capital Budapest on 29 May, leaving one person still missing
from the disaster.
Police said in a statement that the body of the female victim was found on
Friday in the Danube river near the village of Makad, around 50 km (31 miles)
south of Budapest.
“Participants of the search are still looking for one South Korean
passenger,” the statement said.
Thirty-five people, all of them South Koreans except for the Hungarian
captain and a crew member, were on the Mermaid sightseeing boat when it
collided with a river cruise vessel and sank on a busy stretch of the river
in the heart of the capital.
Only seven South Koreans are known to have survived.
The search for the missing along the Danube river, from the accident site
to the southern border with Serbia, has been the largest ever search
operation mounted in Hungary, according to authorities.
The Ukrainian captain of the larger vessel, the Viking Sigyn which
collided with the Mermaid, is under investigation on suspicion of
“endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths”.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1838 hrs