Russian riverboat sinks; 100 missing, feared dead

More than 100 people were missing and feared dead after the sudden sinking of a passenger cruiser on the Volga River on Sunday afternoon, Russian officials said.

The 56-year-old double-deck pleasure cruiser Bulgaria was carrying 188 people — 142 passengers and 46 crew — when it went under about two miles from the shore of the Volga, in central Russia near the regional capital of Kazan, about 450 miles east of Moscow.

Two bodies were quickly recovered, officials said, and about 80 passengers had been rescued, 13 of whom were rushed to hospitals, said Irina Andrianova, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman, in televised remarks.

Divers found the ship lying on its side at the bottom, about 60 feet down, and were seeking to determine whether anyone inside was still alive.

“According to our divers chances to find people alive are minimal,” Andrianova said.

Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered dozens of rescue workers to determine whether survivors had managed to make it to any of 13 nearby islands. Bright lights bathed the area to assist in the search.

The ship may have sunk because it was overloaded, a law enforcement source told Interfax news agency. The tragedy occurred during a thunderstorm accompanied by strong rain, said a survivor whose wife and grandson were missing.

Other survivors said the boat, which was packed with tourists returning home at the end of the weekend, sank very suddenly.

Russian television showed chilling footage of shocked survivors whose relatives were feared dead. One young woman said she lost her 10-year-old daughter.

“We all found ourselves buried alive inside the boat like in a sarcophagus and were trying to get out through the window,” the woman, wrapped in a long towel, said in Kazan’s port. “I was holding her by the hand, but then she began to choke and pushed me away.”

The woman, whose husband also survived, added that there were dozens of other children on board.

“Our baby remained there, our baby remained there,” cried a tearful man embracing a woman who buried her head in his chest.

A middle-aged survivor said two passing cargo boats failed to help even though many victims were in the water desperately waving. Finally, a passenger liner stopped and picked up survivors.

The vessel was manufactured in Czechoslovakia in 1955 and was equipped with two rescue boats that could accommodate 36 people and several rescue rafts for 120 people, Interfax reported.

The accident took place on what is the biggest river in the European portion of Russia. It could prove the worst shipwreck in Russia since a passenger cruiser sunk a quarter-century ago in a collision near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, killing 423 people.

sergei.loiko@latimes.com