"I spent an hour and a half trying to persuade the Ministry of Emergency Situations to start a search." The father of children killed during a storm on the Volga River shared his version of events.
Today, August 2, Chuvash rescuers found In the Volga, the body of the owner of a light motorboat that capsized along with people on July 29 due to strong waves.
The day before from the water got An 8-year-old boy drowned. His 6-month-old sister was among the dead.
Let us recall that on the boat, which was designed for five passengers, was 11 people. Five were missing life jackets.
As the father of the deceased children told Roman Afanasyev, his family was vacationing with a large group of people on Amoksar IslandLate in the evening of July 29th, they began packing up to go home. Roman managed to make one trip to shore in his rubber boat, ferrying several people. He noticed high waves rising, so he decided not to take anyone else, grabbed some food, and returned to the island to his family.
Later, a man arrived there, introduced himself as the “owner of the place,” asked to vacate the area, and offered his boat to take them across the Volga.
Afanasyev put his wife and children with him, and he himself went in a rubber boat, into which he loaded his things.
«Around 19:00 pm we left at the same time, I went ahead, cited his Telegram channel "Angry Chuvashia" I swam to shore, and then a hurricane hit. I started sounding the alarm! Around 19:45 PM, I called 112. The responder's verbatim response was, "We have no gas, no flashlights to start a search." I spent an hour and a half trying to convince the Ministry of Emergency Situations to start searching.
According to Afanasyev, he was the first to search. First, he found a woman struggling in the water, then his wife, clinging to a gas canister with all her might. In her arms was their dead daughter.
According to those rescued, his son swam to shore for several hours and drowned just a short distance from land.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations has not commented on Afanasyev's version of events. They previously ReportedThe search for the missing boy and the boat's owner began on the night of July 30 and took place in difficult weather conditions. The search and rescue operation lasted nearly three days.
Photo by the Ministry of Emergency Situations