Volgogard boat disaster: 10 dead as boats collide in Russia World cup city

Volgogard boat disaster

Ten people have been killed in a disastrous collision between two boats in the Russian city of Volgograd, which is hosting matches in the soccer World Cup, local officials and Russian media said on Tuesday.

Emergency services received notification at around 22:00 (19:00 GMT) on Monday evening that the vessels had collided on the Volga river, about 1 km from the riverbank.

There were a total of 16 people on board the pleasure craft when the collision happened, all of them Russian citizens, Russia’s RIA news agency cited the local administration as saying.

Five people were rescued from the passenger vessel, three of whom are in hospital, according to the website of regional governor Andrei Bocharov.

Ten people were killed, while one person is unaccounted for, RIA cited the local emergency services as saying.

A search operation is underway.

Volgograd will play host to World Cup opening round matches involving England, Tunisia, Nigeria, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Japan and Poland.