49 drowning accidents within 24 hours, 7 dead children – DW – 07.07.2024

Russian emergency officials said on Sunday that 49 drownings had occurred in the country in just 24 hours, amid scorching heat that affected much of the country.

“Over the past 24 hours, a total of 65 incidents were recorded in the country’s waters – 49 people died,” the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said via the messaging app Telegram.

Russian state news agency RIA reported that the number was ten times higher than in the same period last year.

Increase in drownings in hot weather

The country is currently experiencing its warmest weather in over a hundred years, with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), prompting people to cool off in bodies of water and reservoirs. Temperatures in Moscow broke the record set in 1917.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that, among other things, a ten-year-old girl had drowned in the Volga in the Nizhny Novgorod region and that divers were now searching for her missing six-year-old sister.

The ministry said an 8-year-old child, apparently without adult supervision, drowned in the Ayba River in the Sverdlovsk region.

Three people drowned in the Bashkiria region between the Volga and the Ural Mountains, including a 16-year-old girl.

The Russian Hydrometeorological Service said on Friday that unusually hot weather was expected in southern European parts of Russia over the weekend, with temperatures in some places rising to over 40 degrees Celsius.

kb/rc (Reuters, DW sources)