Russia divers find ship chamber where children were trapped

• The number of confirmed dead rises to 71 in the sinking of the "Bulgaria"
• President Dmitry Medvedev declares Tuesday a national day of mourning
• He orders a special investigation and tells prosecutors to look into the case
• The ship was overloaded and not licensed to carry passengers, prosecutors say

Moscow (CNN) -- Divers working on a Russian ship that sank over the weekend, killing dozens, broke through to an inner room where a children's karaoke concert was taking place when the boat capsized, emergency officials said Tuesday.

Officials believe dozens of children were trapped in the recreation room when the "Bulgaria" sank on the Volga river in the Russian republic of Tatarstan with more than 200 people on board.

The death toll has now reached 71, with 44 bodies identified, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.

There are 175 scuba divers working on the scene, the ministry said.
Russia is observing a day of mourning Tuesday with church services taking place all across the country, flags flying at half staff and national television canceling all entertainment programming in the wake of what Russian media are calling the most devastating river accident in the country's history.

Among the bodies to have been recovered are those of the ship's captain Alexander Ostrovsky and his wife, local officials in Tatarstan told Russian media at the site of the accident.

Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said the lifting of the boat will start late afternoon on Saturday.

Dozens of people are still unaccounted for, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

At least 79 people have been rescued, some of whom have been released from hospitals after receiving medical treatment, according to government agencies.

The ship did not have a license to transport passengers, was overloaded, and was last repaired more than 30 years ago, the Russian Prosecutor's Office said Monday.

Prosecutors also established that the left engine of the ship was damaged, they said on their website.

Russian state TV reported the vessel had an operational limit of about 150 passengers, citing a top government official on site. State TV also reported, citing law enforcement officials, that there were life vests on board for only 156 people.

Emergency Situations Minister Shoigu said there were 208 people aboard the ship, of whom 25 passengers were not officially registered and didn't have tickets. RIA Novosti reported Tuesday that 205 people were on board.

The president appointed Transport Minister Igor Levitin to head a special government commission to investigate the case.

"It is clear that such an accident couldn't have taken place if safety rules were followed, even despite the difficult weather situation," Medvedev said. "We have to establish why the owner of the ship operated a ship that was in such a poor technical condition."

He also called for "a total inspection of all public carriers in Russia," he said, adding that it is "obvious that this ship was not the only one with issues.

"The number of old tubs that are now in use (in Russia) is just staggering," he said.

"We can see from the information we have that the vessel was not in the appropriate condition," Medvedev said of the Bulgaria.

He instructed the Prosecutor General's Office to investigate everyone involved in the Bulgaria cruise, including "ship-owners, those who issued the navigation permit and those who were involved in organizing that boat tour, especially given the large number of children aboard."

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that some passengers could have survived by swimming to the bank or one of the islands in the Volga.

Survivors told Russian state TV that there were many children on board the ship.

The ferry was built in 1955 in the then-Czechoslovakia, according to Russian law enforcement officials.

RIA Novosti said the double-deck cruise ship went down near the village of Syukeyevo in Tatarstan, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the city of Kazan. Kazan is about 724 kilometers (450 miles) east of Moscow.