Eight Dead, Two Missing In Moscow River-Boat Accident

A spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry says eight people drowned and two more were missing after a pleasure boat sank in the Moskva River.

Authorities says a total of 17 passengers and crew members were on board the ship when it collided with a barge shortly after midnight. Seven people were reportedly rescued.

Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quoted Yury Bessedin, deputy director of the Moscow branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, as saying that the accident may have been caused by an infraction of river navigation rules.

The sinking came just three weeks after Russia’s worst post-Soviet river-boat accident — when 122 people died aboard a tourist boat that sank July 10 on the Volga River in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan.

compiled from agency reports

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