Police launch criminal investigation into Danube ship collision

The national police (ORFK) have launched a criminal investigation into Wednesday's ship collision in central Budapest, in which at least seven people died, Colonel Adrian Pal told a press conference on Thursday. The bodies of seven victims have been recovered and two of them have been identified, while a search is under way for 21 others, he said. All seven survivors are South Korean nationals, he added. The disaster happened at 9.05pm on Wednesday, when Hungarian sightseeing boat Hableany (Mermaid) collided with Viking Sigyn, a large cruise ship belonging to a Swiss company, the colonel said. At the time of the collision, there were 35 people aboard the Hableany, 22 women, 12 men, and a child, he said.