Three people died, two were missing and about 300 were injured in Budapest late on Sunday when a violent storm struck a fireworks display over the river Danube, attended by more than a million people.
“According to the current information, there are three dead and two missing,” government spokesperson Emese Danks said Monday during a briefing at the prime minister’s office.
About 300 people were injured with up to five still in a critical condition, Health Minister Lajos Molnar told journalists during a visit to a city hospital.
The two missing are a Romanian couple who were thrown overboard after a collision of boats on the Danube, said the prime minister’s press chief Boglar Laszlo.
Authorities said there was little chance of finding them alive.
One of the three to die was a 12-year-old girl, killed after a large tree fell on a crowd of spectators.
More than one million people had gathered on the banks of the Danube Sunday night to watch a fireworks display laid on for Hungary’s national day.
Minutes after the start of the show, torrential rains and gale force winds of up to 100kph uprooted trees and blew out windows as panicking spectators ran for cover to escape the downpour. — AFP