Ship collision – Hungarian and South Korean ministers at disaster site

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha visited the site of Wednesday’s ship collision on the Danube in central Budapest, on Friday.

In the incident, a small sight-seeing ship carrying South Korean tourists collided with a large cruiser and sank. At least seven people died and 21 other have been reported missing.

The two foreign ministers were accompanied by Hungarian government officials, leaders of the disaster management authority, and South Korean diplomats.

For that matter, the Ukrainian captain of a cruise ship which collided with a sightseeing boat was detained after he was questioned as a suspect, police said late on Thursday.

Following an on-site inspection of the cruise ship, investigators working in cooperation with nautical experts seized evidence, police said.

The 64 year-old captain of the Viking Sigyn cruiser was questioned under suspicion of causing the mass disaster and was detained, the statement added.

The captain has not violated any rules, an attorney representing him told MTI later on Friday, adding that he has filed a complaint against the accusations. Balázs M. Tóth said that raising charges was “untimely” and there was not enough evidence to support suspicion. He added that the opinion of experts would be crucial.

The lawyer said in a statement that the captain has served 44 years in that capacity and had never caused an accident.

The captain has been shocked by the accident, he is sorry that he could not avoid the disaster, and has expressed his sympathy to the victims’ families, he added.

Meanwhile Gergely Karácsony, Budapest mayor candidate of opposition Párbeszéd, called for new shipping regulations, citing a boom in shipping on the Danube within the city. He proposed that large ships should be banned from cruising the river for sightseeing.

Source: MTI