They wanted to see Moscow from another perspective, go down into the depths of the Earth to feel the excitement of the unexplored running through their veins. But the adventure, probably poorly planned and above all without adequate precautions, ended in tragedy. The emergency services rescued on Tuesday the bodies of the last three hikers who on Sunday entered the drainage collectors of the Russian capital and were never able to get out. While they felt the chills of the underground labyrinths of the city, a storm broke out on the surface and torrential rain flooded the sewers in a few minutes. Following the complaint from a family member, the police and the media have spent three days waiting for the eight urban adventurers, all deceased.
At first it was believed that the number of disappeared was higher, since 20 people had registered online. The tour began at two in the afternoon, the rain surprised them at three and several hours later the first corpse was discovered dragged into the Moskva River, that of a 15-year-old teenager who was spending the day with her boyfriend and her uncle. of this, who was the one who proposed the fatal excursion.
Although these types of adventures in the Moscow catacombs are usually semi-legal, they are relatively popular and have become something of a subculture. There are specialized guides that offer this type of tour to explore these extensive tunnels, some built in the 19th century.
The police arrested on Tuesday those responsible for what has ended in tragedy, Alexander Kim, general director of a company called Sputnik, which offered the excursion, and Nikita Dubas, the direct organizer.
Shortly after, the rescue teams concluded their work when they found the last three bodies. The youngest hikers were two 15 year old girls. Another minor was 17. The remaining deceased were between 31 and 63 years old. One of the deceased could be Konstantin Filippov, the tour guide. But not all the bodies have yet been identified.
In the Russian capital there are eleven sewer collectors. Those who most attract diggers, the name given in Russia to those who explore underground urban structures, are those who pass under the historic part of the city. And the most popular route is the one that follows the underground course of the Neglínnaya River, a small tributary of the Moskva River barely eight kilometers long and whose channel runs mostly under tunnels through the center of the city. This route costs 9,000 rubles (almost 90 euros) and is the one chosen by the unfortunate hikers.
They entered the sewers of the Russian capital on Sunday at two in the afternoon at Olimpiski Prospekt, where there is a brick drain collector from 1906. The expected duration was two hours and 45 minutes. An hour later, at the height of Trúbnaya, with structures from 1819 and 1974, his last communication took place.
Several expert diggers have been surprised that the excursion was not suspended. That was done by experienced explorers like the veteran Daniil Davidov, with 25 years visiting the urban subsoil of Moscow. Even with a drizzle it is strictly forbidden to go underground, as “it can always be very dangerous,” he told the RIA Novosti news agency. The water level through this maze of tunnels is usually ankle-deep, so you can go in with rubber boots. But with a bad weather and torrential rain advisory like the one issued by the Ministry of Emergency Situations that day, the level can rise above head in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, the water in the tunnels behaves like a mountain torrent. If it goes up to the knee, a person can easily be knocked down. And if it reaches the waist, the current will end up dragging it. “All professional diggers know that you can’t be there when it rains. The collector is a closed system and as soon as it rains the water level immediately increases and it is almost impossible to escape”, said the digger Natalia Gréjova on the News.ru portal.
“The organizers assured the citizens who bought the excursion that it was safe, while they illegally penetrated the underground infrastructures,” the Investigation Committee (Prosecutor’s Office) said in a statement. The organizers of this tragic excursion could now face up to ten years in prison.
