Two people have died and a search is under way for three men and two women after a boat accident on Saturday evening which took place on the River Danube near Verőce, north of Budapest, the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK) said on its website on Sunday, adding that police were working under the assumption that a small motor boat and a cruise ship had collided. Police were called to the scene when a disorientated man was discovered with a bleeding head near the main road in Verőce. After questioning, they concluded the man was the victim of a boat accident. Police and search and rescue staff immediately began searching the area using drones and river craft. Soon after a man’s body was found on the river bank south of Verőce, while hours later a woman’s body was at Megyeri Bridge on the Danube alongside a damaged motor boat. Meanwhile, a damaged cruise ship was stopped upriver at Komárom and police have mounted an inspection of the cruise ship and the boat. Criminal proceedings are under way in connection with an unidentified perpetrator on suspicion of endangering river safety and causing the death of several people. Altogether, eight adults were on the motor boat, with three men and two women currently missing.
Police said on its website on Sunday afternoon that the search was still ongoing for the missing people with the help of 95 search and rescuers and 25 boats. A police helicopter, staff of the Pest County Research and Rescue Service, and volunteers of rescue organisations are also involved. The operation is being coordinated from the Danube river police headquarters in Kopaszi peninsula in southern Budapest. On Monday, the police arrested the captain of the cruise ship on suspicion of failing to provide help to passengers in the boat after the collision.