Seven children were among 49 people who drowned in waters across Russia on Saturday as scorching heat blankets large swaths of the country, the Ministry for Emergency Situations said on Sunday.

“A total of 65 incidents were registered on the country’s water bodies over the past 24 hours — 49 people died,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

That is 10 more drowning incidents than on the same day a year ago, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.

Over the past week, Russians braved some of the hottest weather seen in more than a century, with Moscow breaking a 1917 record and cities across the world’s biggest country sizzling in temperatures well above 35°C.

Russia’s Service for Hydrometeorology said on Friday on its website that abnormal, sweltering heat was expected across most of the south of European parts of Russia over the weekend, with temperatures rising in some places above 40°C.

In the Nizhny Novgorod region in central Russia, a 10-year-old girl drowned in the vast Volga River and her six-year-old sister disappeared, with divers still searching for her, the emergency ministry said.

In the Bashkiria region, which lies between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, three people drowned, including a 16-year-old girl, the ministry said.

Opinion

Editorial

Controversial timing
Updated 05 Oct, 2024

Controversial timing

While the judgment undoes a past wrong, it risks being perceived as enabling a myopic political agenda.
ML-1’s prospects
05 Oct, 2024

ML-1’s prospects

ONE of the signature projects envisaged under the CPEC umbrella is the Mainline-1 railway scheme, which is yet to ...
No breathing space
05 Oct, 2024

No breathing space

THIS is the time of the year when city dwellers across Punjab start choking on toxic air. Soon the harmful air will...
High cost of living
Updated 04 Oct, 2024

High cost of living

There will be no let-up in the pain of middle-class people when it comes to grocery expenses, school fees, and hospital bills.
Regional response
04 Oct, 2024

Regional response

IT is welcome that Afghanistan’s neighbours are speaking with one voice when it comes to the critical issue of...
Cultural conservation
04 Oct, 2024

Cultural conservation

THE Sindh government’s recent move to declare the Sayad Hashmi Reference Library as a protected heritage site is...