Rescuers find all missing bodies from sunken riverboat in Volga River

Emergency workers have recovered the last two bodies of the 122 people who died when the Bulgaria cruise vessel sank in the Volga River earlier in the month, a spokesman for the local department of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said on Monday.

“Two more bodies have been recovered. According to the list of passengers on the Bulgaria, all the bodies of those killed in the accident have been discovered,” he said.

The twin-deck riverboat Bulgaria, built in 1955, capsized and sank on the Volga River on July 10 near the village of Syukeyevo in the Kansko-Ustinovsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan. Seventy-nine of the 201 people aboard the riverboat were rescued.

The Russian Investigation Committee said on Friday that two suspects in the sinking of the Bulgaria were charged with providing unsafe services causing the deaths of two or more people.

The main suspects in the case are Svetlana Inyakina, the general director of the company that rented the cruise boat, and river fleet inspector Yakov Ivashov, who inspected the Bulgaria’s safety before the departure and certified it fit to sail.

Experts are currently examining documents and other evidence from the sunken vessel and two rescue boats.

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