Nine days have passed since the tragic sinking of a sightseeing boat on the Danube River, boarded in Budapest by 33 Korean passengers and two Hungarian crew members.
On Thursday, three more bodies were found along the river two South Korean passengers and one Hungarian crew member... raising the death toll from the collision to 19.
We're also learning this morning that the captain of the cruise liner that collided into the smaller tour boat was also involved in another collision in April.
Oh Soo-young has the details.
Authorities have retrieved another body along the Danube River some five-point-eight kilometers downstream from the site where the Mermaid tourist boat capsized last week.
The body was discovered by locals,... and Seoul's response team in Budapest confirmed it was the body of a South Korean man in his sixties.
Less than two hours later,... another body was recovered some 40 kilometers down from the accident site,... at around eleven-thirty AM, local time.
Authorities identified the victim as a Korean woman in her thirties.
A third body was discovered in the evening about four kilometers down from the wreckage.
The victim was later confirmed to have been one of the two Hungarian crew members who had been on the ill-fated boat.
This brings the death toll to 18 South Koreans and one Hungarian,... out of the 35 people who boarded the Mermaid last Wednesday.
Only seven people survived the sinking.
Nine remain unaccounted for.
A floating crane has been standing by since Wednesday to salvage the wreckage.. but has not been able to reach the accident site due to unsafe water levels.
Korean authorities have told reporters they're considering other means such as floating boats to lift the wreckage.
While Korean authorities have not yet announced specific dates for funeral proceedings,... the authorities in Budapest have started issuing death certificates.
Observers say cremations are set to begin on Friday,... while bodies for burial are expected to be returned to Korea over the weekend.
In the meantime, investigations are ongoing over the larger cruise ship that collided with the boat carrying the South Korean tourists.
The captain of the bigger cruiser was found to have been involved in a crash a matter of weeks before the Danube sinking,... in the Netherlands in April,... according to the Hungarian prosecution.
The Ukrainian captain was formally arrested last weekend on charges of endangering water transport which led to the deadly sinking of the Mermaid.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.
