Tragedy on the lake

How and why it happened - The New Times gathered the main facts about the death of 14 children in Karelia

14 children died as a result of a storm on a Syamozer in Karelia

June 18. In the afternoon, a group of children with counselors from the Park-Hotel Syamozero children's camp went on a boat walk. 51 people, of which 47 children are 12-15 years old and 4 instructors, sailed from the camp on two boats of 11 people in each and another 25 people on the raft. The group was heading to the island to set up a tent camp there and stay overnight.

At 16.30 local time, a storm began on the lake. The wind speed reached 14-16 meters per second, there were two -meter waves on the lake. Both boats turned upside down. One of the surviving instructors said that one canoe turned over first, and the children from him, trying to escape, turned the second. The raft during the storm did not turn over and was nailed to one of the islands.

The tragedy became known only the next day. At 11.15, a resident from the village of Kudam, which is located on the opposite bank from the camp (13 km by water), called the Ministry of Emergencies. A 12-year-old girl came to the local resident who also participated in a walk along the lake and got into the storm.

The publication "Petrozavodsk says" writes that the girl was thrown ashore at night in an unconscious state, in the morning she woke up and went for help. According to other information, the searches were started earlier - at 8.20 in the morning - Kudamami turbase employees. They brought the surviving children from the islands to the shore and found the first dead.

Only 10 people were able to swim to the village, another 26 were on islands 2.5 km from the shore.

June 19. On Sunday afternoon, the Ministry of Emergencies began the search for children. Initially, only one inverted boat was known, the local publication “Provincial Daily” was the first to write about the beginning of a rescue operation. The fact that it was a group from a children's camp was not reported.

Only those who independently got out of the water were saved before the start of the search operation. 14 children and one “adult” (minor instructor) were killed. According to the Petrozavodsk media, the children could not drown during the storm, but to die from injuries and hypothermia (water temperature in the lake, according to the forecasts of the Ministry of Emergencies, on the afternoon of June 18 was 12 degrees).

Later, local residents told reporters that the Ministry of Emergencies sent SMS messages about storm warning to local residents. However, there was no warning on the Ministry of Emergencies. A group of children with counselors went to the canoe in the lake without registering in the department (registration of tourist groups in the Ministry of Emergencies is not mandatory).

According to Rosturism, children from dysfunctional families and orphans from Moscow rested in the camp-all of them were sent to the camp in Karelia through the social protection organs.

The SK opened a criminal case under part 3 of Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Performing work or the provision of services that do not meet security requirements."

June 20. 33 survivors of the child and the bodies of the dead were delivered to Moscow. In the Republic of Karelia and Moscow, on June 20, it was declared a mourning day.

Within the framework of the advanced criminal case, detention began. By the evening of Monday, 5 people were detained - the director of the camp and its deputy and three instructors. At the same time, students of the Petrozavodsk Pedagogical College worked as instructors in the camp. The poor reputation of the camp was not a secret for the authorities-parents and local residents wrote complaints about bad conditions for the detention of children in the Syamozero Park, prosecutorial inspections were held in the camp. And in 2012, the previous deputy director of Park Hotel Syamozero was convicted of killing a watchman by negligence.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the authorities of Moscow will be paid to relatives and parents of dead children in material assistance in the amount of 1 million rubles, and ordered to additionally check the safety of children's vacation places from the capital. Meanwhile, according to the SPARK Interfax, despite numerous complaints and poor reputation, since 2014 the camp of Syamozero Park-Hotel won the competitions of the Moscow Social Security Department for the organization of summer recreation for schoolchildren. According to the results of 2014, the amount of the company's contracts with the Department amounted to 63 million 366 thousand 324 rubles, in 2016 - 45 million 308 thousand 602 rubles.

In addition, the company won similar auctions held by the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Republic of Karelia.

June 21. As a result of the tragic events in Karelia, 14 minor residents from Moscow were killed on Syamozer, the Department of Labor and Social Protection of the City of Moscow said:

Photo: Igor Podgorny/TASS