Won’t give up search for Budapest victims: Seoul

21 missing 2 days after boat accident

South Korea vowed on Friday not to give up hope in the search for 21 people still missing two days after a sightseeing boat carrying mainly South Korean tourists sank on the Danube.

Rescuers are battling strong currents on the swollen river in their search for any more survivors of the Mermaid sightseeing boat, which overturned and was swallowed by the Danube just seconds after it collided with a much larger cruise ship in pouring rain late on Wednesday. Hungarian police have detained the captain of the river cruise ship involved in the crash.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha has arrived in Budapest with a emergency task force and visited the site of the crash on Friday along with her Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto. “We have firmly decided that we won’t give up our hopes about the possibility of finding survivors” until all the missing are located, she told a press conference.

But the prospects of finding any more survivors are seen as very slim, as attempts by hundreds of Hungarian police and army rescuers to find the victims and reach the submerged vessel are hampered by fast-flowing currents. Only seven people are known to have survived so far.

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