Moscow, July 31 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Eight people drowned and one person was missing Sunday after a pleasure boat collided with a barge and sank in Moskva river here, the emergencies ministry said.
‘Another body has been recovered. The fate of one person is still unknown,’ the ministry said.
The private pleasure boat Lastochka, carrying 16 people, sank on the night of July 30-31 in the Moskva river that flows through the city after a collision with a cargo barge.
Six people were rescued and one swam to the shore on his own. The captain, who was also the boat’s owner, was among those who drowned in the accident.
Investigators have launched a criminal probe into the sinking of the riverboat on the charges of violation of water transport operation rules.
The accident comes less than a month after a two-deck cruise ship Bulgaria, carrying 201 people, capsized on the Volga river, killing 122 passengers, including children. Only 79 people could be rescued.
The twin-deck Bulgaria sank near the village of Syukeyevo in the Kansko-Ustinovsky district of the republic of Tatarstan.
