At least 14 children have drowned after three tourist vessels from a summer camp were caught in a storm on a lake in Karelia, northwest Russia. All the children appear to be from Moscow.

The casualty figures were reported by the Investigative Committee probing the incident. Investigators say there were 47 children and four adults on board the vessels: two boats and one raft. All of them were from the Park-Hotel Syamozero summer camp located on Lake Syamozero, not far from the border with Finland, Russia Today reported.

A total of 37 people from the three boats survived the incident, according to the Emergencies Ministry. 

The drowned children are from Moscow, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin confirmed on Twitter, expressing condolences to their families and friends.

Moscow authorities have sent rescuers, doctors, psychologists and social workers to the scene.

All of the victims of the Karelia boat disaster were children born between 2002 and 2004, who were staying at a camp, Vladimir Markin, the Investigative Committee spokesman, said.

There were no adults among the dead, he stressed, denying earlier reports that one of the instructors had died.

The kids, who died in the boat disaster, were between 9 and 11 years of age, Aleksey Gavrilov, deputy head of the Committee on Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs at Karelia’s Legislative Assembly told RT. 

Children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov has confirmed that orphans were among the children who died in a lake boat disaster in Karelia.

Russia hadn’t seen such a mass casualty incident in a summer children’s camp for several years, according to the omdudsman. “It is necessary to declare mourning in Karelia and Moscow,” he said. Karelia will hold a day of mourning on June 20, authorities said. 

Source : MENA