Boat collision: 11 die in city hosting Nigeria’s world cup matches

Babatunde Scott |

Eleven people on a river cruise were killed late on Monday when their boat collided with a tugboat in the Russian city of Volgograd, which is hosting Nigeria’s preliminary matches in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, rescue services said.

Volgograd will host World Cup opening round matches involving England, Tunisia, Nigeria, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Japan and Poland.

Emergency services received notification at around 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Monday that the vessels had collided on the Volga River, about 1 km from the riverbank.

Emergencies Ministry officials said rescue operations ended on Tuesday when searchers found the body of the 11th victim, a woman.

Five had been rescued, Emergencies Ministry spokesman, Dmitry Ulanov said.

There were 16 people on board the pleasure craft, all of them Russians; the RIA news agency cited the local administration as saying.

Three of the survivors are in hospital, according to the website of regional governor, Andrei Bocharov. A search operation is underway, and an investigation has been opened into the cause of the collision.

According to state TV channel Rossiya-24, the passenger vessel was overloaded and its marker lights were off when the collision happened.