NIZHNY NOVGOROD, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - Four people died, 17 were rescued and one is missing after a motor boat driven by a drunken person sunk in the Votkinsk Reservoir in Russia's Perm Territory in the Urals, emergencies services said Saturday.

"There were 22 people in the boat. Seventeen people were rescued, the bodies of four have been discovered, one person is still missing," a spokesman said, adding that 16 people were rescued by emergencies services and one managed to reach the coast on his own.

The spokesman said the man who drove the boat was drunk. "Both the man who drove the boat and the whole company on board were in a state of intoxication: they were celebrating a festival," he said.

"The wreck probably occurred because the boat was largely overloaded: it was originally designed to take 12 people, but 22 were on board," the spokesman said, adding that all passengers were aged below 30.