Death toll in Russian boat disaster reaches 100

13 Jul 2011 13:29

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Divers increase scope of search

* Twenty-nine victims still unaccounted for (Changes dateline, adds colour, rescue statement)

By Gennady Novik and Nikolai Isayev

KAZAN, Russia, July 13 (Reuters) - Divers widened their search for the remaining 29 missing boat passengers after the death toll in Russia's worst river disaster in three decades reached 100, the Emergencies Ministry said.

Officials say 79 people of 208 passengers survived the sinking of an ageing, overcrowded tourist boat when it sank in the Volga River on Sunday. The remaining 29 still unaccounted for are feared dead.

The Bulgaria, a 79-metre river cruiser built in 1955, listed onto its right side during a thunderstorm and sank in minutes in a broad stretch of the Volga in the Tatarstan region, trapping many passengers inside as the vessel sank to the riverbed.

"The bodies of 100 people killed have been extracted," said regional Emergency Situations Ministry official Igor Panshin Of the bodies recovered, 18 were children.

Three days since the ship sank in one of Russia's longest rivers, divers expanded the area of their search on Wednesday to 190 km (118 miles) around the site of the accident, while authorities prepared to drag the cruiseship out of the water.

At a burial in Kazan near the site of the disaster, funeral rites were held for the boat's captain Alexander Ostrovsky.

"He was a good swimmer, I am sure he simply did his civil duty, heroically, up to the bitter end," said his former wife Tatyana, standing over his body covered in a funeral shroud.

The cause of the disaster was not clear, but prosecutors said the boat, which lacked a licence to carry passengers, was already listing to the right when it left port and had engine trouble.

Emergency officials said the boat was meant for up to 140 people but was carrying 208, including 25 unregistered passengers.

(Reporting by Tatiana Ustinova; writing by Steve Gutterman and Thomas Grove