{"id":116378,"date":"2026-02-21T17:46:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=116378"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:46:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:46:30","slug":"divers-recover-bodies-of-seven-chinese-tourists-from-bottom-of-lake-baikal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=116378","title":{"rendered":"Divers recover bodies of seven Chinese tourists from bottom of Lake Baikal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russian authorities say divers have recovered the bodies of seven Chinese tourists and a Russian driver who died after their mini-bus plunged under the ice to the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia.<\/p>\n

Irkutsk regional Governor Igor Kobzev offered his \u201cdeepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims\u201d. He earlier said one Chinese tourist had managed to escape.<\/p>\n

The depth at the site of Friday\u2019s accident was 18m (59ft), and the divers had to use underwater cameras to search for the bodies.<\/p>\n

Baikal \u2013 the world\u2019s deepest lake with a maximum depth of 1,642m (5,387ft) \u2013 is a popular tourist destination. It often freezes during harsh winters and has seen a number of deadly accidents over the years.<\/p>\n

The bus fell into three-metre-wide ice fissure on Friday, Kobzev said in a post on Telegram.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to remind you once again that going out onto Lake Baikal\u2019s ice is not just prohibited right now. It\u2019s mortally dangerous,\u201d the governor said, urging tourists to use only official tour operators.<\/p>\n

He added that all the Chinese tourists \u2013 including a 14-year-old child \u2013 had travelled independently.<\/p>\n

A criminal investigation into the cause of the tragedy is now under way.<\/p>\n

Shortly afterwards Kobzev took to social media again, saying that \u201csadly, even this tragedy hasn\u2019t taught people a lesson\u201d, informing that six people trapped in their cars had been rescued in two separate incidents on Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n

In late January, a Chinese tourist died after a car he was travelling overturned on the frozen surface of Lake Baikal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Russian authorities say divers have recovered the bodies of seven Chinese tourists and a Russian driver who died after their mini-bus plunged under the ice to the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17313,1910,17314,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divers","category-international","category-lake-baikal","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}