Danube shipwreck
Boat torn apart: “It was a violent collision”
While the Hungarian rescue services continue to search for five people who have been missing since a collision between a small motorboat and a hotel ship on the Danube, more and more details are now emerging about the accident that left two people dead. The police have released footage of the motorboat, or what remains of it, and arrested the captain of the hotel ship.
What can already be said on the basis of the injuries of the dead - the bodies of a woman and a man have been recovered so far - and the only survivor or the damage to the small motorboat according to the investigators, the head of the responsible rescue and investigation service stated on Hungarian radio: "It was a violent collision," said László Balázs on Monday. The small boat, which according to media reports was carrying eight people at the time of the accident, who were on their way from a party on the banks of the Danube to another party, was "literally mowed down", László continued.
There are also clear traces of the accident on the front and side of the 110-metre-long and eleven-metre-wide cruise ship, which is operated by a German travel company. It is still completely unclear how this fatal encounter occurred late on Saturday evening. Dozens of eyewitnesses have already been questioned - including guests of the MS Heidelberg and the passers-by who discovered the seriously injured survivor on the banks of the Danube.
One person told the TV station RTL that he had observed a lot of traffic on the Danube near Veröce, north of Budapest, on the night in question. Suddenly he heard "a big bang". Eyewitnesses also assume that the impact must have been noticed by the captain or the crew, as reflectors are said to have come on a short time later. However, the ship continued its journey towards Passau and was only stopped near Komárom on the Slovakian border when the police, rescue services and civil protection were already searching for the wreck and the missing persons.
Relatives take part in the search for missing persons
The search is still in full swing (see video below). However, this is being hampered by debris and other flotsam. According to media reports, relatives of the missing persons are now also taking part in the search. However, according to the authorities, the chance of survival is "extremely low". However, they do not yet want to speak of "victims".
Hotel ship captain in police custody
The captain of the MS Heidelberg was taken into police custody on Monday afternoon. He is suspected of failing to render assistance. This is because the man apparently neither alerted crew members nor instructed them to take the measures prescribed in the rescue protocol. According to shipping experts, however, the current state of knowledge suggests that the driver of the motorboat may have acted negligently. Ships are not allowed to approach "closer than 30 meters", in which case the motorboat would also have had "priority", the spokesman of the National Maritime Association, Mihály Tóth, told the TV station ATV.
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