Cruise Ship Hits Lock Wall in Vienna, Injuring 14 People
On Friday, a river cruise ship hit a lock on the Danube in Vienna, causing injuries to multiple passengers and damage to the bow of the ship.
Early on Friday morning, the cruise ship Anna Katharina was navigating the Danube through Vienna with about 200 passengers and crewmembers on board. At about 0430, the vessel hit the lock wall at the Freudenau power plant.
14 people on board sustained light injuries from the force of the allision. The local fire department responded to the scene with ladder trucks, and used a fire ladder to retrieve several people from the vessel's deck. Six of the injured were transferred to a hospital for evaluation of back, neck and chest pain.
After ensuring that all were accounted for and treated if necessary, the operator transferred the rest of the passengers to an alternate river cruise vessel for onward travel.
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The cause of the casualty is under investigation and a judicial inquiry is under way. "The possibility that a technical defect may have been the cause of the accident is currently being considered," a police spokesperson told local outlet Heute.
Anna Katharina is a 135-meter cruise ship built in 2019. She has a capacity of 180 passengers and serves a variety of routes on the Rhine, Main and Danube waterway system.
