A tourist boat that sank in Russia's Volga river was overloaded, with 208 people on board, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said today.
Mr Shoigu told President Dmitry Medvedev that there was almost no hope of finding any more survivors after the sinking of the Bulgaria. He said 80 people had been rescued.
Mr Medvedev, speaking at his Gorki residence outside Moscow, said that Russia would hold a day of mourning tomorrow and added the boat accident would not have happened if safety procedures had been properly observed.
Divers searching the wreck of a Russian Volga river boat reportedly saw more than 100 corpses trapped inside the pleasure craft when they recovered eight bodies today.
A few dozen divers working with underwater lights searched the double-decked boat built in 1955 that survivors said listed to its side and sank in minutes yesterday during stormy weather with nearly 200 people on board.
An estimated 110 bodies, including those of 30 children, remained in the sunken ship, the Interfax news agency cited a regional search and rescue service as saying.
As many as 60 of the passengers may have been children, Russian media reported, and survivors said some 30 children had gathered in a room near the stern of the ship to play just minutes before it sank.
Cruises on the Volga, which cuts through the heart of Russia hundreds of kilometres east of Moscow and drains into the Caspian Sea, are popular among Russians and foreigners.
The Bulgaria had taken its passengers from Kazan to a town down river on Saturday and was returning when it sank in 20-metre-deep water.
Reuters