Several dead after tourist boat capsizes on Danube River in Budapest

At least seven people were killed and more than a dozen were missing after a pleasure boat carrying South Korean tourists capsized on the flooding Danube in the Hungarian capital on Wednesday, police and ambulance said.

The boat was reportedly hit by another tourist vessel near the Hungarian parliament building, then turned over on the river, which has been flooding, with very strong currents, while a rainstorm enveloped Budapest.

Mihaly Toth, a spokesman of the boat's owner, told state television that the boat the Mermaid had sunk.

A massive rescue effort was under way with boats, divers, spotlightsand radar scanning along the river several kilometresdownstream from the site of the accident, which happened shortly after 9 p.m. local time.

Police said the boat had been carrying 33 South Korean tourists plus a crew of two.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry later confirmed that 33 of its citizens were on the boat and said 19 were still missing.

The two crew members were identified as Hungarian.

An ambulance service spokesman told state television that 14 people had been pulled out of the water so far. Seven haddied, with the other seven suffering from hypothermia but stable. It was not immediately clear exactly how many of the remaining 21 people were still missing.

The sunken boat was located early Thursday near the Margit Bridge, not far from the neo-Gothic parliament building on the river bank.

Employees from the South Korean Embassy in Budapest were assisting Hungarian officials in identifying those rescued and the deceased.

Television footage showed the bank of the Danube closed off by police on the Pest side to the east, across from the World Heritage site of Buda Castle on the west side.

Police ordered all shipping to stop on the Danube in central Budapestin a statement.

The Danube's flooding and currents made rescue efforts extremely difficult, a rescue diver told the state broadcaster, adding that the waters of the Danube were only about 10 to 12 degrees Celsius.

The boat was a 27-metredouble-decker which can hold 60 people and was equipped with a 150-horsepower engine, its owner, Panorama Deck Ltd., told MTI in a statement.

"We are mobilizing every resource we have to protect human lives," they added.

The Mermaid had been in their fleet since 2003 and received regular maintenance, they said.