Four Tajik Athletes, Coach Die After Car Plunges Into River

Four teenage Tajik basketball players and their coach drowned after their car plunged into a river.

One young athlete, Husein Isoev, 13, survived the June 23 accident, which occurred in the mountainous district of Varzob.

Rahmatsho Kamolov, chief of the sports directorate at the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism, told RFE/RL that the bodies of the coach, Ehromhon Isoev, who drove the vehicle, and his son, Saidamir, were found by rescue workers on June 24.

Three other young athletes, including Isoev's second son, Saidusmon, as well as Ismoil Hamdamov and Behruz Homidov, are missing and believed to be dead.

The group was traveling to Dushanbe to take part in a tournament.