Macedonia and Bulgaria mourn 15 dead in Ohrid boat accident - Summary

Posted : Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:56:39 GMT
Author : DPA

Skopje/Sofia - Macedonia began a day of mourning on Sunday for 15 people who died when a tourist boat capsized and sank Saturday in Lake Ohrid in southwest Macedonia. Macedonian officials confirmed to local media that all the victims were Bulgarian tourists on their way to the medieval monastery St Naum.
Forty-two people were rescued, including six injured, from the boat which sank on Saturday morning, approximately 250 metres from the shore.
Earlier reports had said that 22 people died and 53 were rescued, but the toll was reduced during the night to 15 dead and 42 rescued.
The vessel, the Ilinden, was constructed in 1924 in Regensburg, Germany, and had recently undergone a technical inspection.
Bulgaria said Sunday it was shocked by the age of the boat and said it plans to open its own investigation of the accident.
"This boat, built in 1924, belongs to the museum," Bozidar Dimitrov, Bulgarian Minister without portfolio told Bulgarian State Radio.
Bulgaria has declared Monday a national day of mourning.
Macedonian officials said from an initial investigation that the accident was a combination of a technical fault and overcrowding, as the vessel was constructed for 45 people.
Madedonian police have arrested the captain of the boat, whilst the Macedonian Minister of Transport, Mile Janakievski, has resigned on "moral grounds" in the wake of the accident, reports said.
The captain of the boat was quoted as saying that he heard a loud crack before the ship sank. Witnesses told local media the vessel broke in two parts and sank within 60 seconds.
"It was horrible. We saw bodies floating," one witness was quoted as saying.
Rescue teams and witnesses said that entire families died in the accident. The survivors were flown in the early morning hours of Sunday to Bulgaria on special plane sent by the government.
Lake Ohrid, the deepest lake in the Balkans, is Macedonia's most popular tourist destination, drawing tens of thousands of local and foreign tourists every year.
UNESCO declared both the lake and the town Ohrid as as World heritage site in 1980.