© ReutersA survivor from the tourist boat Bulgaria that sank
The double decker boat carrying more than 180 people sunk "within minutes" during a heavy storm on Russia's Volga River on Sunday killing at least two people and leaving more than a hundred other passengers missing.
In an accident that will raise fresh questions about the safety of Russia's ageing Soviet-era trains, planes and boats, eyewitnesses said the tour boat sank about two miles from the nearest river bank in bad weather.
"It was not that choppy but it was raining hard and there was a storm," Yelena Kaleyeva, a resident of a nearby village, told local media.
Other witnesses said the vessel, called Bulgaria, sank within about two minutes, that visibility in the area was low, and that passengers dashed to grab hold of anything that floated to stay alive.
Not all of them managed to get a life jacket or to make it to one of the few emergency boats however.
