2 Dead, 5 Missing after Boat Collision on Danube in Hungary

The pack of riders cross the Chain Bridge over River Danube during the fourth stage of the 45th Tour de Hongrie, a cycling race over 167 km between Budapest and Etyek, Hungary, 11 May 2024.  EPA/ZOLTAN MATHE HUNGARY OUT
The pack of riders cross the Chain Bridge over River Danube during the fourth stage of the 45th Tour de Hongrie, a cycling race over 167 km between Budapest and Etyek, Hungary, 11 May 2024. EPA/ZOLTAN MATHE HUNGARY OUT
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2 Dead, 5 Missing after Boat Collision on Danube in Hungary

The pack of riders cross the Chain Bridge over River Danube during the fourth stage of the 45th Tour de Hongrie, a cycling race over 167 km between Budapest and Etyek, Hungary, 11 May 2024.  EPA/ZOLTAN MATHE HUNGARY OUT
The pack of riders cross the Chain Bridge over River Danube during the fourth stage of the 45th Tour de Hongrie, a cycling race over 167 km between Budapest and Etyek, Hungary, 11 May 2024. EPA/ZOLTAN MATHE HUNGARY OUT

Two people were killed and five others were missing after a suspected collision involving a small motor boat and a cruise ship on the Danube River north of Budapest late on Saturday, Hungarian police said.

The body of an adult man was found near the site, while that of a woman was recovered further downstream and disaster response units were still searching for the five missing people, police said on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the Budapest police, Soma Csecsi, said eight adults were aboard the small motor boat at the time of the suspected collision. The accident was reported on Saturday night after police talked to a man found with a bleeding head wound near the main road by the river near Veroce, 55 km (34 miles) north of Budapest.
"Police talked to the man and from his initial communication they drew the conclusion that he was probably the victim of some kind of boat accident," Csecsi said.
The body of a man was recovered south of Veroce, while a woman's body was found further downstream near a bridge on the northern outskirts of Budapest, where police also recovered the damaged motor boat, he said.
"At the time of the accident a cruise ship was located in the area, which was stopped at the town of Komarom where police have determined that the ship is damaged on one side," he said.
Hungarian state media carried images of a moored 109-metre-long cruise ship identified as Swiss-based Heidelberg. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board or their nationalities.
Police have launched a criminal investigation against an unknown perpetrator to determine the cause of the accident. The goal of the investigation is to find whether anyone is criminally liable, Csecsi said.

The Danube at Veroce is roughly 1,500 feet (460 meters) wide and is in the center of an area called the Danube Bend where the river makes a sweeping, nearly 90-degree turn to the south. The area is a popular recreational and boating destination and is on a route often used by cruise boats between Budapest and the Austrian capital, Vienna, some 140 miles (230 kilometers) upriver.
The deadly accident comes five years after at least 27 people were killed in Budapest when a river cruise boat collided with a smaller tourist vessel, sinking it in seconds.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."