(2nd LD) 2 more S. Korean victims found, death toll 18 in Hungary boat sinking

All News 22:58 June 07, 2019

(ATTN: UPDATES paras 6-8)

BUDAPEST/SEOUL, June 7 (Yonhap) -- The bodies of two more South Koreans have been found from last week's deadly sinking of a tourist boat in Hungary, officials said, raising the number of Korean deaths to 18 with eight others still missing.

The Hableany pleasure boat was carrying 33 Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members when it capsized and sank on May 29 after being hit by a larger Swiss cruise ship from behind. Seven Koreans were rescued right after the accident.

On Thursday, three bodies were retrieved from the waters and two of them were confirmed to be a South Korean man in his 60s and a woman in her 30s, the government response team from Seoul dispatched to the site told reporters. The third body was a Hungarian.

The Korean man was found 5.8 kilometers away from the accident site. The female victim was discovered 40 km from where the ship sank. They were both found by local residents, officials said.

Search operations had been hampered by high waters due to heavy rainfall. The authorities sent divers into the river on Monday to search for the missing and start preparing for salvaging the ship.

Hungary has been working to lift the vessel using a crane.

A crane had been docked at a quay close to the accident site for days, unable to be moved toward the scene due to high water levels. But it successfully reached the site late in the day after passing under two bridges.

A South Korean official told reporters earlier that the Hungarian government is likely to try to raise the boat by using the crane on Sunday if it reaches the site and necessary measures are taken to guarantee that what remains inside the boat does not go missing in the process.

The work is expected to take around four hours.

As an alternative, Hungary is also said to be looking into using a floating dock. Once the wreck is tied to it, a floating dock could submerge into the water and raise the ship as it returns to the surface.

The South Korean official explained that Hungarian authorities will likely seek to use a crane first since using a floating dock could risk causing the boat to shake too much.