Alwaght- At least 14 children have been drowned in a boating accident at a Russian summer camp in northwest Russia.
On Saturday, three boats carrying a 51-member group, consisting of orphans or children from troubled families and their adult instructors, capsized in Syamozero Lake during a storm. Thirteen children have died and one remains missing, according to State-run Sputnik.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the investigation was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The president gave relevant instructions to Investigative Committee to identify the causes of the tragedy and to identify those guilty of it," said Peskov.
A committee spokesman added that all the victims were between the ages of nine and 15, from Moscow, and were either orphans or from troubled families.
A criminal case was opened on Sunday, with several arrests made, head of the Park Hotel Syamozero, Elena Reshetova, her deputy, and two instructors
“Within the framework of a criminal investigation, a legal assessment will be given to the actions of the staff of the children's camp and other responsible parties, which send the children boating in bad weather,” the spokesman added.
“Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to bring back the children,” said Vladimir Markin, another spokesman for the committee.
Markin also criticized lack of attention to safety measures from the camp's personnel, saying that the kids were not wearing safety vests during the tragic boat trip.
“I sympathize with all the parents and those close to the children, who died because of the negligence and stupidity of the adults, with whom they had entrusted what was dearest to them: the lives and health of their children,” he added.
The fatalities on Lake Syamozero in Karelia could have been avoided if the boat trip had been properly registered, the press service for the North-Western Emergencies Ministry’s Regional Center told TASS.
"If the camp’s staff had warned the Emergencies Ministry of the boat trip, they would have been accompanied by rescuers or banned from boating due to weather conditions," the press officer said.
The rescuers learned about the disaster from the locals after one of the survivors reached a village on the lakeshore.
“If the group had been registered and wouldn’t have establish communication in due time, the rescue workers would’ve started the search immediately. But here time was lost,” the press service said.
Tatiana, a local resident, told RT that the boat trip was a bad idea because of the weather conditions.
“The wind was mad yesterday. It’s a crime to let children for a voyage on the lake,” she said, adding that the camp was not a place she would recommend people to send their children to. According to her, instructors at the camp were regularly drunk. She also mentioned that not long ago a security officer was killed on the camp’s premises.
