The double-decker passenger ship Bulgaria was carrying at least 180 people on a pleasure cruise when it ran into a storm and sank in the Volga River on Sunday afternoon. The tourists on board were returning from a weekend trip.
Eighty survivors were pulled from the river, but five people were found dead, and the rest remain missing. The local Emergency Situations Ministry said there was little chance of finding more passengers alive.
Around 30 children had gathered in a second-deck playroom just before the ship began to sink, one survivor said. The entire incident reportedly lasted only three minutes.
Al Jazeera's Roza Kazan reports.
