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Invesigators: Children asked instructors to cancel tragic raftig trip due to bad weather

At least thirteen children drowned as a result of a tragic rafting trip accident in Russia's Karelia

© Igor Podgorny/TASS

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The children at a summer camp in Russia’s northwestern region of Karelia had asked their adult instructors to cancel the rafting trip on a lake where the tragedy occurred this weekend, official spokesman for the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said on Monday.

"Now the investigators also have information that when the group planned to go on a trip, the children told the instructors not to go rafting as there were rumors at the camp about a storm warning, but despite this the instructors insisted on the trip," Markin said.

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According to preliminary investigation data, on June 18 a total of 47 children vacationing at the Park Hotel Syamozero children’s camp accompanied by four adult instructors ran into a gale while rafting on three boats in Lake Syamozero in Karelia. The boats overturned and sank.

Fourteen children drowned, and thirteen bodies have been found so far, while a search for another dead is ongoing. The others were evacuated. All the adults survived.

Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into rendering services that fail to meet security requirements, resulting into the death of two and more persons.

Five suspects have been detained, including director of Park Hotel Syamozero Yelena Reshetova and three instructors.

The camp is closing now, Russia’s Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov said on Monday. A total of 189 children are currently staying there, including 58 from Moscow.

June 20 has been declared a day of mourning in Karelia.

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