Hungarian police say they have identified seven South Koreans who died in a Budapest riverboat crash, without releasing their names.
"We could do that first using finger and palm prints taken from them, the corpses, and co-operating with South Korean authorities, and second, using photographs shown to victims' family members, who identified their relatives," police spokesman Kristof Gal said on Saturday.
Seven South Korean citizens survived the crash and seven died, while 19 South Koreans and two Hungarians have been officially listed as missing for three days, all of them feared dead amid hostile conditions on the Danube river.
Floodwaters prevented attempts to reach the submerged boat on Saturday, three days after it sank in the Hungarian capital with 28 people feared dead, nearly all of them from South Korea.
It is so far unclear what caused the accident, in which the 135-metre cruise ship hit and sank the smaller pleasure boat on Wednesday night.
Water levels are expected to peak later on Saturday and the current depth of the river, just short of 6 metres should fall to about 4 metres by mid-week, the National Water Authority said in a statement.
That would leave the wreckage very close to the surface, according to sonar imaging, and should make it easier to search it for bodies and prepare to remove it from the riverbed, something divers have been unable to do under the current hostile conditions.
Captain charged over the incident
The captain of a river cruise ship that collided with the smaller sightseeing vessel was charged on Saturday.
A Budapest court official said the Ukrainian captain of the Viking Sigyn had been charged but gave no further details.
The 64-year-old was detained on Thursday for questioning - a day after his vessel collided with the smaller Mermaid, carrying mainly South Korean tourists, causing it to overturn and sink on a busy stretch of the Danube.
He was questioned for "endangering waterborne traffic resulting in multiple deaths", police said at the time.
The captain's lawyer, Balazs Toth, said the court had granted bail, but prosecutors were appealing it so his client remained detained.
"My client has not changed his statement made as a witness. He insists that he has not made any error," his other lawyer, Gabor Elo, told reporters after the hearing.
A spokesman for Swiss-based Viking Cruises, which owns the larger vessel, said in a statement that it was supporting and co-operating with accident investigators.
"We are deeply saddened by the incident and our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were impacted and as well as to their families," the spokesman said on Friday.
"We understand the captain has been charged by the local authorities and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further while the legal process is ongoing."
