5 dead, five missing in Moscow river boat accident

MOSCOW – Five people drowned and five were missing Sunday after a pleasure boat sunk in the Moscow river, a spokesman for the emergency ministry said.

“The bodies of five passengers have been pulled out,” a spokesman for the city’s emergency ministry told AFP, adding that the boat had a total of 17 passengers and crew on board, seven of whom were saved.

The rescue operation was continuing Sunday morning, the spokesman said, adding that he could not comment on the chances of finding more passengers alive.

The privately owned Swallow pleasure boat collided with a barge at 00:58 am (2058 GMT Saturday) close to the city’s Luzhniki sports stadium, officials said.

Two Turkish nationals were among the passengers rescued, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported, citing a rescue official.

“The accident is provisionally believed to have taken place because of breaches of shipping rules,” the deputy head of the city’s emergency ministry, Yury Besedin, said in televised remarks.

The accident came less than three weeks after Russia’s worst post-Soviet shipping accident when 122 people died after a pleasure boat sank on July 10 on the Volga River in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan.

The 56-year-old vessel craft was overcrowded and operating without a proper license, officials said. Investigators have arrested the tour operator and a local licensing official and have promised to widen their criminal probe.

Originally posted at 09:35 am | Sunday, July 31, 2011