Divers complete search of sunken Russian ship (Mian Shakeel Aslam)

Mian Shakeel Aslam :Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Divers have completed their search of a Russian cruise ship that sank last weekend with the loss of many lives, the Emergency Situations Ministry told CNN Friday.

The official death toll has reached 114 -- including 66 women, 28 children and 20 men, the ministry said. The bodies of 15 people are still missing.

Divers have checked all the boat's compartments, the ministry said, and are now looking for more bodies around the boat as well downstream on the Volga River, where they could have been carried by the current.

Specialist military divers were brought in mid-week to aid in the search.
Russian ship sinks with scores onboard
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There were 208 people on the "Bulgaria" at the time of the accident Sunday, of whom 79 were rescued.

Preparations are under way for the cruise ship to be raised from the river bottom Saturday.

Two large boat cranes, one from Moscow and another one from Volgograd, which will be used for the lifting, are on the way to the accident site.

Four people face criminal charges over the sinking of the ship, which Russian media have called the most devastating river accident in the country's history.

The ship did not have a license to transport passengers, was overloaded, and was last repaired more than 30 years ago, the Russian Prosecutor's Office said earlier this week.

Prosecutors also established that the left engine of the ship was damaged, they said on their website.

Russian state TV reported the vessel had an operational limit of about 150 passengers, citing a top government official on site. State TV also reported, citing law enforcement officials, that there were life vests on board for only 156 people.

The vessel was built in 1955 in Czechoslovakia, according to Russian law enforcement officials

Posted By Mian Shakeel Aslam

 

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