Hungarian police say two people have died and five are missing following a boat collision on the Danube.
Hungarian police received a report late on Saturday night that a man had been found bleeding from his head on the shore of the river near the town of Verőce, about 30 miles (50km) north of the capital, Budapest.
The bodies of a man and a woman were later discovered nearby.
Hours after police began their search, they discovered a damaged boat in the water, which they towed to shore. They are still searching for five adults – three men and two women – who they believe were on the boat.
Police said that a river cruise boat had been in the area at the time of the accident. They stopped a vessel with a damaged hull near the town of Komárom, more than 50 miles further up river.
The Danube at Verőce is roughly 460 metres (1,500ft) wide and is in the centre of an area called the Danube bend, where the river makes a sweeping, nearly 90-degree turn to the south. The area is a popular recreational and boating destination and is on a route often used by cruise boats between Budapest and the Austrian capital, Vienna, 140 miles up river.
The deadly accident comes five years after at least 27 people were killed in Budapest when a river cruise boat collided with a smaller tourist vessel, sinking it in seconds.
The tourist boat Mermaid, carrying 35 people who were mostly South Korean tourists, was overtaken from behind by the much larger cruise boat, Viking Sigyn, beneath Budapest’s Margaret Bridge, in May 2019.
The Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn was last year found guilty of negligence leading to a fatal mass catastrophe and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. He has appealed against the decision.
after newsletter promotion
Police on Sunday said they had initiated criminal proceedings against an unknown perpetrator on suspicion of endangering water transport and causing the death of several people.
A spokesperson for the directorate general for disaster management told the Hungarian news agency MTI that a group of nearly 90 people from several regional disaster management agencies were conducting the search for the missing people from the land, water and sky.
Twelve boats and three drones were involved in the search, as well as two rescue divers, Imre Dóka said.