The accident happened overnight on Lake Syamozero, close to the border with Finland, according to Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's investigative committee. Updating an earlier toll of 12 dead, an source in the local emergency services told TASS news agency that "two more bodies of adolescents have been found", taking the number of drowned to 14.
The children, who were aged between 12 and 15, were "apparently not wearing life jackets", Russia's children's rights watchdog, Pavel Astakhov, told the RIA Novosti agency.