Bodies of all victims in Volga shipwreck found
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Xinhua, July 25, 2011
A total of 122 bodies of victims in Volga shipwreck have been found, local regional emergency department said on Monday.
"As of now, the death of 122 people has been officially registered," a spokesman of the department was quoted by local media as saying. He added that 28 children, 72 women and 22 men were confirmed dead.
Most of the bodies of 114 people were recovered shortly after the accident, while eight others were found after the ship was lifted from a depth of about 20 meters in the river.
Investigators were continuing examining the ship wreckage and documents and other evidence from the sunken ship.
The 65-year-old Bulgaria cruise boat carrying 201 passengers sank in Volga on July 10. Only 79 of the passengers were rescued.
The Bulgaria ship was lifted from the river on Friday. Now it is on a bank near the Kirelskoye boat-yard next to the dock.
Earlier, head of the Volga regional emergencies center Igor Panshin said that no visible damage outside and inside the boat could be found, adding that devices in the wheelhouse proved that the vessel was heading for a shoal at full speed when the tragedy occurred.
So far, policemen have detained two people involved in the tragedy -- Svetlana Inyakina, general director of the company that rented the cruise boat, and river fleet inspector Yakov Ivashov, who certified that the Bulgaria was fit to sail.
The two may face prison terms if they were found guilty of providing unsafe services causing the deaths of two or more people, according to some local police officers.
Moreover, captains of two passing ships were also charged as they passed the disaster scenes without offering any assistance.
Yuri Tuchin from the Arbat dry cargo carrier and Alexander Yegorov from the Dunaisky 66 tugboat are charged with not rendering help and may face up to two years in prison.
After the tragedy, Russia has suspended the operation of all ships of the same class. The Bulgaria ship was reported to be scrapped as soon as the investigation is complete.
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