Remains of Danube victims returned to Korea

Rescue workers on Monday in Budapest lower a wire rope to tie around the sunken Hableany, which sunk on May 29 in the Danube River to prepare for a salvage operation near Margaret Bridge. [YONHAP]

The remains of some of the victims of a recent tour boat sinking in Budapest were returned home Monday, airline sources said.

The bereaved relatives of four victims arrived at Incheon International Airport in the morning, while holding the boxes of the victims’ ashes, the sources said, adding that their cremation took place in Hungary. It’s the first time that families returned home after visiting the European country after the accident.

Other families are expected to follow, the sources said.

Later in the day, a funeral for two of the four victims, a couple killed in the sinking, was held in Anyang, Gyeonggi.

“I never dreamed their pleasant trip [to Hungary] would end as the last one. I pray they will be happy in heaven,” a mourner said.

On May 29, a sightseeing boat carrying 33 Koreans and two Hungarian crew members capsized and sank after colliding with a larger Swiss cruise ship. The sinking left 19 Koreans dead and seven others unaccounted for. Hungarian authorities were set to tie the fourth and last wire rope around the hull of a sunken tour boat Monday, in their final preparations to lift it to search for the missing in last month’s disaster. Hungary’s Counter-Terrorism Center will finish binding the wire ropes around the boat as a floating crane has been on standby for the salvage operation near Margaret Bridge in the Danube River.

Yonhap