Body found from Danube 102 km downstream after Hungary river accident

A body was pulled from the Danube more than 100 km downstream from Budapest, officials said on Monday, the first apparent victim recovered since the night of a boat crash presumed to have killed 28 people.

"One body presumed to be a South Korean was found in the village of Harta (on the left bank of the Danube), 102 km away from here," South Korean defense attache Song Shun-Keun told reporters in Budapest, citing Hungarian government authorities.

The body is presumed to be of a South Korean male in his mid to late 50s, but the Hungarian government is in the process of verifying the victim's exact identity, he said.

South Korean and Hungarian divers prepared on Monday for an attempt to recover bodies from the wreck of The Mermaid, which sank on Wednesday carrying 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew, in the river’s worst disaster in half a century.

Two divers from South Korea's quick response team dispatched to Budapest went into the water at about 9 a.m., from a barge docked in the river in Hungary's capital. Two Hungarian divers also took part in the test dive.

"We're not approaching the wreck right away but trying to gauge the situation (down there) first," a rescue team official said.

South Korean and Hungarian workers had been unable to conduct underwater searches because of high waters and strong currents stemming from days of rainfall. They carried out surface-level searches along the Danube River with little success.

The rescue team was expected to start sending divers into the waters as soon as conditions are met, the Seoul government said earlier. The water levels had dropped to about 7.6 meters as of Sunday, compared with the previous level of 9.3 meters a day earlier. The speed of the river has also slowed.

South Korea will ask Hungary to seek a court order to put a lien on the Swiss cruise ship, known as the Viking Sigyn, responsible for the collision and sinking of the Hableany, a foreign ministry official said.