Two officers if Viking Freya, a river cruise ship belonging to Viking River cruises, have lost their lives after the vessel hit a bridge on the Rhine-Main-Danube (RMD) Canal in Germany, local media reports say.
The accident happened at 0130 am on Sunday morning as Viking Freya was on its way to Budapest in Hungary. It hit a bridge that crosses the canal, which liks the two most important inland waterways of Europe. The wheelhouse of the vessel was completely destroyed in the collision and the two crew members died as a result.
The cause of the accident remains unknown. The wheelhouse can be lowered to allow the vessel to pass under low bridges, but at the time of the accident it had not been brought to the low position, a reported on the website of Bild.de said.
None of the 184 passengers on board were hurt. The ship has a crew of 49 and those that lost their lives were Hungarian citizens, the report said.
