Photo: AP

Four people have been detained in connection with a doomed boating expedition that took the lives of 14 children in northern Russia this weekend, the BBC reports. 37 others are said to have survived.

Russian officials say that three boats carrying 47 children and four adults capsized on Lake Syamozero on Sunday after a nearby summer camp hosted a boating trip despite repeated cyclone warnings in recent days.

According to Russia Today, Children’s Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov said that those who died “apparently had no life vests” and included orphans. Additionally, an emergency services spokesperson said that the disastrous trip would have either been canceled or accompanied by rescuers if it had been properly registered. From RT:

The rescuers learned about the disaster from the locals after one of the survivors reached a village on the lakeshore.

“If the group had been registered and wouldn’t have establish communication in due time, the rescue workers would’ve started the search immediately. But here time was lost,” the press service said.

Tatiana, a local resident, told RT that the boat trip was a bad idea because of the weather conditions.

“The wind was mad yesterday. It’s a crime to let children for a voyage on the lake,” she said, adding that the camp was not a place she would recommend people to send their children to. According to her, instructors at the camp were regularly drunk. She also mentioned that not long ago a security officer was killed on the camp’s premises.

“They didn’t have the right to go out boating,” said area lawmaker Alexei Gavrilov, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reports that two instructors as well as the director and deputy director of the hotel where the children were staying have been detained.