Pavlodar junior hockey players get home after bus stuck in Russia

PAVLODAR. KAZINFORM The players of Irtysh Children's Hockey Club of Pavlodar, who were traveling by bus which broken down on the night of 21st to 22nd January near the village of Blagoveshchensk, Altai Krai, are back home, Kazinform correspondent reports.

"No one felt cold, the weather was OK. We got home quickly," said 13-year-old Daniil Bondarenko, the player of Pavlodar's Irtysh Hockey Club.

Team coach Rinat Omarbekov said that the young Pavlodar hockey players, who had been stuck on the road in the cold, got home safely. The coaches and children thanked everyone who helped them in the hard circumstances.

"We went to bed there. No one worried about anything, everything was OK, we were very positive about tha situation," 13-year-old Danil Friauf said.

Reportedly, after the breakdown of the bus in Russia, local residents immediately rushed to help young athletes. Officers of the Federal Rescue Service evacuated the children from the highway to the local culture club and provided them with hot meals. During the Russian championship of the Siberian and Far East division, the junior team of Irtysh played against the local Vympel Hockey Club in Mezhdurechensk. The game ended in a draw.

Recall that on the night of 21st to 22nd January, a bus carrying a children's ice hockey team of Irtysh Hockey Club of Pavlodar, broke down near Blagoveshchensk village (Blagoveschensky District, Altai Krai) on the way from Mezhdurechensk (Altai Krai, Russian Federation) to Pavlodar. In the bus, there were 18 children, 2 coaches, and 2 drivers. All of them were accommodated at the hostel of a technical school in Stepnoye village. "Everyone is safe and sound, and is given food," the Kazakh Consulate in Omsk reported.