(CNN) — tourist boat on the Danube river in Budapest has sunk with 34 people on board, including the crew, a spokesman for the tour operator said Wednesday.
Hungarian authorities confirmed that officers from Budapest Police headquarters, as well as disaster management and rescue service personnel, are handling the rescue operation.
Authorities have not confirmed how many passengers are missing.
The Mermaid, a ship from Panorama Deck’s tourist fleet operating on the Danube, sunk shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday, Panorama Deck spokesman Mihaly Toth told CNN.
Those on board were mainly tourists from the “far east,” Toth said.
Emergency services are attempting to rescue as many people as possible, but the water level is high, and for that reason “the Danube is very strong,” he said.
Heavy rain is also impeding emergency responders’ efforts to search the water’s surface.
There were “no signs of a possible issue with the boat,” the spokesman said. Panorama Deck “ensures all the necessary technical maintenance is carried out every year” on their fleet, he added.
“We cannot confirm why the boat sank — it was just an average day, and this was a regular trip. We carry out thousands of tourist boat trips every day, there were no signs that something like this could happen,” the spokesman said.
According to Toth, the Mermaid ship has been in operation since 2003.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Passengers missing after sightseeing boat sinks on Danube River in Hungary.”
