Unprecedented in this year's influx of tourists from the Middle Kingdom, decided to enjoy the beauty of the deepest and cleanest lake in the world, nearly led to a serious tragedy.
The failure of one of the three ferries cruising Lake Baikal between the mainland and the island of Olkhon, provoked Chinese tourists to a desperate deed. Tired of waiting for hours, about 300 people simply tried to seize the ship.
The emergency happened on July 29, but this story was only public now. Details of the incident was published by the website of the TV channel "Zvezda".
One of the ferries "Semen Batagayev" went out of order and was sent to the dock for repairs. On the line between the mainland and the island, only the "Olkhon Gates" and "Dorozhnik". Initially, nothing foreshadowed the sealing of traffic and, as crew members say, the work was in normal mode.
However, soon, on the island ferry formed an impressive line. The reason for this were just several dozens of tourist groups from China. And this, not counting other tourists who decided to admire the beauties of Lake Baikal.
According to the captain of the ferry "Olkhon Gates" Sergei Sizikov, who, in fact, was taken to board the inordinately nervous Chinese guests, it all happened when the ferry approached the island pier and moored.
"Everything happened in a few seconds. As soon as the last car was unloaded from the ferry, a whole crowd of Chinese literally rushed to the stern, "said the captain.
According to Sizikov, his daughter, who helps him as a helmsman, tried to stop the crowd, but was literally knocked down.
"The daughter wanted to detain them. I tried to explain in Chinese that according to the rules of ferry communication it is necessary to drive cars first. In addition, we are not allowed to take more than 96 passengers. Since there are only 96 life-saving appliances, "the captain of the ferry.
A crowd of Chinese refused to make the slightest contact with the ship's crew. All of them were with trunks and bags. During the storming of the ferry, one of the tourists, very furious because of a long wait on the pier, hit his daughter in the face and knocked her tooth out. For that, according to Sizikov, received from him personally a weighty blow to the face. If all 300-400 people broke through, the ferry could actually sink. In the course of the scuffle, the team managed to crowd out the crowd to shore and hoisting the anchor quickly, to sail away without taking people or cars.
In all this story, one fact surprises - the captain and the team acted, in fact, competently. And did not let the ship sink to the great masses of people on board. Nevertheless, as Sergey Sizikov admitted, at the Olkhon gate he is no longer working. After the incident, his, the captain with 32 years of experience, was simply written off to the shore.
"How the dog was thrown out, it's good that it's not like they drowned Mumu yet," Sizikov said..
In the same East Siberian river shipping company, to which it was allegedly almost a boarded ferry, was told that the contract with the captain had been terminated at his request and no one had fired him by force.
In the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Irkutsk region, the incident with, in fact, the seizure of the Russian ship, did not comment. There they referred to the fact that allegedly no statements were made about this from anyone to the police.