Last night, a man had been found with a bleeding head near the village of Veroce, 55km north of the capital Budapest, police said.

He was suspected of having been involved in a river accident, with police immediately searching the area.

The bodies of a man and a woman were discovered as well as a damaged small motorboat, which was brought to shore.

The motorboat was carrying “eight adults, five of whom – three men and two women – are still being actively searched for as missing”, police spokesman Soma Csecsi told a press conference.

Authorities said they determined that a cruise ship had been in the area at the time of the accident.

Police later stopped a cruise ship with visible damage near the town of Komarom.

Authorities have initiated criminal proceedings against an unknown perpetrator on suspicion of endangering water traffic, resulting in multiple deaths.

The cause of the accident was unclear.

In May 2019, Hungary’s worst boating accident in more than half a century saw two vessels collided on the Danube, killing 25 South Korean tourists and two crew members.