Russia: Bodies of children holding hands after ship capsizes

Children killed in train capsize in Republic of Karelia,NorthwestThe Russians tried to help each other until their last breath, when the children's bodies were pulled up holding hands.

Children return to the hotel after the storm capsized the boat. Photo: Tass.

Locals who came to the rescue said the victims were "hugging each other very tightly," RT reported from the lake.Syamozero. "The children were holding hands in a chain. When they started pulling them out one by one, they found some children dead and some still alive," the reporter said.Roman Kosarev said.

A local living near the lake gave further details of the rescue. "I was walking along the lake shore and saw a little girl. I went into the water to save her. She was dead," he said.

Then, as they sailed past some islands, they saw "something red, like a sheet of plastic". "We went ashore, lifted the sheet of plastic and there were the children. We found five of them there," the man said.

Yesterday was a day of mourning in Russia, after 13 children drowned over the weekend and one remains missing, when boats capsized in a storm on LakeSyamozero, Republic of Karelia,NorthwestRussia.

At least 5 hotel summer camp staffPark Hotel Syamozero was arrested and faces criminal charges of negligence for taking 47 children and four teenage guides on a boat trip in bad weather conditions.

The children and their guides initially asked to cancel the trip due to bad weather, but camp management told them to go anyway, the investigation committee said.Park Hotel Syamozero, who is under arrest, learned on the evening of June 18 that the children had not returned, but did not think anything was wrong.

Location of the Republic of Karelia. Graphics: BBC

According to VNE