(Moscow) Seven people were killed on Friday when a bus carrying around twenty passengers accidentally fell into a river in the heart of Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second city, according to a new report from the authorities.
“The number of people who died following the fall of a bus into the Moyka River has increased to seven,” the Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday evening, indicating that a criminal investigation had been opened.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations had previously reported three deaths, four people “in a state of clinical death” and two seriously injured, mentioning, on Telegram, a “road accident”.
According to the ministry, diving rescue operations were completed by mid-afternoon, with specialists securing straps to hoist the vehicle out of the water.
According to local police, the bus crashed into the barrier of a bridge over the Moika River in central St. Petersburg while around 20 people were on board.
Video surveillance images, broadcast by several Russian media, show the vehicle making a turn, hitting a car, then driving into the bridge barrier and then sinking steeply in a few seconds.