Russian Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev has reportedly passed away while saving another individual's life during a training exercise in the Arctic. According to Russian media reports quoting the Ministry, the 55 year old official had passed away while in the Arctic overseeing interdepartmental drills.
As per a Reuters report quoting the RIA news agency, the Ministry had not divulged further details. Zinichev, they said, had died tragically "while performing his official duties during inter-departmental drills to prevent crisis situations in the Arctic, saving someone's life".
The incident comes mere hours after the high-ranking Minister inspected firefighting facilities in Norilsk. According to Twitter updates shared by Oliver Carroll of The Independent unconfirmed reports suggest that he fell off a cliff.
Unverified reports have also suggested that a second individual, a TV cameraman believed to be affiliated with state-funded news outlet RT, had also passed away. Purportedly, the two had been near a cliff edge when the cameraman slipped and fell off the edge. Zinichev, they claim, had followed while trying to save the man.
As per an AFP report quoting RT editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, he had died while trying to save the cameraman. "He and the cameraman were standing at the edge of a cliff. The cameraman slipped and fell... Before anyone even figured out what happened Zinichev jumped into the water after the fallen person and crashed against a protruding rock," she tweeted.
