Boat Sinked In Macedonia Lake 15 Dead

OHRID: An ageing tourist boat sank suddenly in Macedonia’s popular Lake Ohrid on Saturday, killing 15 people, mostly Bulgarians, as survivors clung to wooden planks and buoys, officials said.

The Iliden was 200 metres (219 yards) from shore when it apparently capsized into the deepest lake in the region — famous for its turquoise waters — at around 11:00 am (0900 GMT) near a campground outside Ohrid city.

“More than 70 passengers were on the boat,” Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska told reporters. “Fifteen perished, four seriously injured were taken to hospital in Ohrid and about 50 survivors are at a local hotel.”

The captain of the Iliden was among the dead, Jankulovska said, adding that the vessel was carrying “a group of Bulgarian tourists and their Macedonian guide”. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said 12 Bulgarians including a child were among the dead. The three other bodies have yet to be identified.

One survivor said the boat sank suddenly and that there were not enough life jackets for everybody.

“The boat swerved sharply and capsized. It started to sink instantly and everybody tried to save their lives the way they could,” the survivor identified as Ivan told Bulgarian radio.

“They grabbed wooden planks and life buoys, but there were not enough buoys and not enough life saving jackets for everybody,” he said.

He said he held on to a wooden plank while his wife and three other women stayed afloat with a buoy until a nearby boat rescued them..

A Bulgarian aircraft was dispatched to Ohrid to fly survivors home and officials in Sofia blamed overcrowding as the likely cause of the disaster, as the government declared a national day of mourning on Monday.

Built in Germany in 1924, the Iliden was in good condition, with an operating permit, and insured with Lloyd’s of London through 2010, Macedonia’s Transport Minister Mile Janakievski said.

It had a capacity of 53 passengers, he added.

Gerard Buittat, a Frenchman who trains police officers in Kosovo under a European Union programme and was paying a visit to the region, told AFP he saw the boat go down in less than a minute.

Whilst driving from Ohrid towards the Albanian border, he said, “I saw a boat filled with tourists which, for some unexplained reason, veered like an outboard motor boat to the right and then immediately fell onto its side.”

“I got out my camera and took a photo of the boat when it was still on its side,” Buittat said. “In the time it took for me to get out of my car, in the space of 30 seconds, it sank.”

Residents at the campground 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) south of Ohrid used small boats to go out onto the lake and pluck survivors to safety, witnesses said. The emergency services came soon after to join them.

Macedonian President George Ivanov, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the interior, transport, defence and health ministers all dashed to the scene, ahead of an emergency meeting of the government in the evening.

Janakievski said that, for “ethical reasons”, he was tendering his resignation as transport minister.

Tens of thousands of people visit Lake Ohrid — about 200 kilometres southwest of the capital Skopje — every year, making it one of the most popular attractions in the Balkans.

The area is a UNESCO-declared World Heritage Site, with Ohrid city — home to the world’s oldest Slav monastery and a priceless collection of icons — among the oldest human settlements in Europe.

Health Minister Bujar Osmai said those injured in Saturday’s disaster were in satisfactory condition, and that autopsies on the dead would be carried out into the evening.

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Boat Sinked In Macedonia Lake 15 Dead was first posted on September 6, 2009 at 12:09 pm.
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