Macedonia mourns boat tragedy as captain detained

Macedonia observed a day of mourning yesterday for 15 Bulgarian tourists who drowned when their boat sank at a popular lake as police detained the vessel's captain amid claims of a lack of life vests.

A total of 55 Bulgarian tourists were on board the pleasure boat Ilinden when it suddenly veered and sank in the waters of Lake Ohrid, the deepest lake in the region and Macedonia's most popular tourist site on Saturday.

A Macedonian investigating magistrate ordered the boat's captain and owner, Sotir Filevski, 23, held for 30 days pending an investigation into the tragedy. He was detained after being treated in hospital.

Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov said that Macedonian investigators were looking into the possibility that a steering cable snapped and caused the accident.

He added that overloading of the aging boat, built in 1924, was another possible cause as the vessel was carrying 10 more people than its licensed capacity.

Fifteen Bulgarians, including a child, drowned in the accident aboard what Bulgarian newspapers slammed yesterday as "a coffin boat."

"We didn't have enough life jackets and we don't know how to swim," Marija, 52, whose husband Pavle died in the tragedy, told AFP.

"We tried to hold on to anything, it was awful. I'll never get on a boat again," said another survivor, Angelika, 54, before getting a flight home.

Bulgaria's 24 Hours newspaper praised the swift rescue efforts of Macedonian campers on the lake and the Macedonian authorities "who prevented a bigger tragedy."

Sofia cancelled Unification Day, a holiday usually marked by a grand army review in the central city of Plovdiv, with President Parvanov instead attending a mass for the victims in the city's cathedral.

Masses were also held in other churches across the country, with an official day of mourning declared for today.

A team of Bulgarian pathologists arrived in Skopje yesterday to assist their Macedonian colleagues in the autopsies of the victims and speed up the return of the bodies.

A Bulgarian army plane was on standby to immediately leave for Macedonia and fly the bodies of the victims home, once the Macedonian authorities release them for burial.

All those who drowned in the accident came from the same region, east of Sofia. A list of their names released by the government showed that whole families had perished.