15 drown as boat sinks in lake

The boat, called ‘the Ilinden’, sank rapidly into Lake Ohrid, police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said. Rescuers pulled 53 survivors from the water, including four who were unresponsive, and were hospitalised in the town of Ohrid, he said.

At least 15 bodies have been recovered from the lake — the deepest in the Balkans, located along the mountainous border between Macedonia and Albania. “A police diving team is on the scene, and we fear more people have drowned,” Kotevski said, adding that it was still unclear exactly how many were on board. Witnesses said the boat was about 200 metres from the shore when it split in two and sank unexpectedly, according to Macedonia’s private A1 television.

The broadcaster said the boat was carrying 50 tourists from Bulgaria among others, and had been travelling from Ohrid, on the lake’s eastern shore, to the medieval Eastern Orthodox monastery complex Sveti Naum, about 29 kilometres to the south near the Albanian border.