Bulgaria Village to Hold Eight Day Mourning over Ilinden Tragedy

Psychological help for the seventeen survivors from the local Anton municipality will also be provided. Photo by BGNES

Eight days of mourning have been declared in the Bulgarian village Anton over the tragic sinking of the Ilinden boat in Macedonia on Saturday, in which 8 of its citizens died.

Stoyan Garchev, the Mayor of Anton (90km East of Sofia), explained that the local council had decided to hold the symbolic eight days of mourning to remember the eight dead citizens that the village had lost.

He added that the children of the people who were killed would be helped financially by the local council, including education fees and other care related expenses. Psychological help for the seventeen survivors from the local municipality will also be provided.

Antoaneta Ilieva, the Mayor of Pirdop also announced that a day of mourning would be held in her municipality on the day that the four people who died from Pirdop are buried.

The whole of Bulgaria is holding an official day of mourning Monday in honor of the fifteen people who died on Saturday when an ageing tourist boat sank in seconds on Macedonia's Lake Ohrid, a popular attraction in the Balkans.

Another 40, all Bulgarians, survived the accident.

The group of Bulgarians aboard the Ilinden were on their way to the Saint Naum monastery.

All 15 bodies have been identified, but under Macedonian legislation, they need to be also recognized by relatives in order to be sent to Bulgaria. Relatives of the victims have arrived in Ohrid on Monday.

 

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