10/7 Tass 139
KAZAN, July 10 (Itar-Tass) —— Tatarstan President Rustan Minnikhanov will cut short his vacation over the MS Bulgaria wreck in the Volga region, a source at the republican president’s press office told Itar-Tass.
“Minnikhanov will lead the operative staff, which includes representatives of the Emergency Situations Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Transport Ministry,” he said.
“All the hospitals of Kazan are ready to admit the people injured in the shipwreck, and the Republican Clinic has assigned a whole department for them,” the source said.
President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered Investigation Committee head Alexander Bastrykin to form a group for investigating the MS Bulgaria wreck in the Volga River in Tatarstan and Minnikhanov to give assistance to the wreck victims and families of the dead, the Kremlin press office said.
The MS Arabella cruise ship is carrying 85 rescued passengers and crewmembers of the MS Bulgaria to Kazan. The arrival is due at 9:00 p.m. Moscow time, the Tatarstan Health Ministry told Itar-Tass.
“As far as we know, there are no seriously injured passengers aboard,” ministry press secretary Gulnara Sabirova said. “Ambulances and psychologists will meet the rescued people in Kazan. Additional beds have been prepared for them at the Republican Clinic.”
Acting Tatarstan head, Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov is coordinating rescue operations on the wreck site. Tatarstan Health Minister Airat Farrakhov is supervising the provision of medical aid to the wounded.
Eighty-five people have been rescued in the MS Bulgaria wreck, the Emergency Situations Ministry told Itar-Tass.
“The ship had 182 people aboard, including 125 tourists, 22 sailors and 35 cooks and animators,” the ministry said. “According to the latest information, 85 are rescued. One is dead.”
The wrecked ship is a double-decker ship with the displacement of 77.4 tonnes built in Czechoslovakia in 1955. According to the preliminary information, it belongs to the Kama River Shipping Company and is rented by a Tatarstan company.