98 bodies retrieved from Bulgaria sunken ship

MOSCOW, July 13 (Itar-Tass) - Ninety-eight bodies have been retrieved
from the Bulgaria motor ship that sank on Sunday, the Russian Emergencies
Situations Ministry's (EMERCOM) information department told Itar-Tass.
"As of 24:00 Moscow time, the death toll is 98 people," a ministry
spokesman said. There are 31 people on the list of missing.
The MS Bulgaria that was on a tour route from Bolgary to Kazan, sank
in the Kuibyshev reservoir in the afternoon on July 10 in a storm. The
motor ship, built in 1955, had a list to the starboard and in several
minutes sank. The capacity of the Bulgaria was 140 passengers, however,
according to official data, there were 208 people on board, and some of
the passengers were not registered. Seventy-nine people have survived.
Criminal cases will be opened against captains of ships that did not
stop to help the passengers from the sunken cruise ship Bulgaria that went
down on the Volga River on Sunday, July 10, a spokesman for the Russian
Investigations Committee said on Tuesday. "Head of Russia's Investigations
Committee Alexander Bastrykin has ordered to open criminal cases against
captains of ships who did not offered help to the distressed Bulgaria
ship," Vladimir Markin said.
The criminal case might be opened on charges of failure to render help
to a distressed vessel. The charge carries a term of up to two years in
prison or a big penalty. Eyewitnesses say that two freight vessels passed
by the distressed Bulgaria but did not stop to help. Russia's Minister of
Transports vowed to punish the captains of these vessels.