16 dead in boat sinking tragedy

TIRANA, March 6 – Sixteen people were killed, including two 3-year old kids, when a boat carrying them sank overnight in Farka lake near the capital.
The families had gathered to celebrate the 21st birthday of Alban Hysa, one of the victims, at a restaurant on the shores of Lake Farka.
After ending the party 19 of them embarked on a small boat with a capacity of seven, which sank meters away at midnight.
Authorities believe the boat capsized because it was overloaded. Three people and daughter of dead restaurant owner who went to save them, survived.
Beqir Sinani, one of the four survivors, said they were told to embark on the small boat after its owner had said that was not the first time he had done that.
The capsizing occurred “in a minute,” according to Sinani. “It sank and everybody was underwater in a matter of seconds.”
Erjona Dibra, daughter of Afrim Dibra, the restaurant owner, went immediately with the other boat and managed to save Sinani and two other women.
Police said the cause of the accident was overloading the boat and considered Dibra as the “person responsible for the fatal tragedy moving with a boat overloaded with 19 persons.”
“All 199 persons embarked on a boat with a normal capacity of transporting five to seven persons, which brought about its immediate capsizing, somewhere at the middle of the lake, drowning in minutes all the persons aboard,” according tot he statement.
The lake was a popular destination in Tirana outskirts, and probably the only one using a boat to transport its clients.
The restaurant owner, identified as Afrim Dibra, and one of the dead, had decided to open the lakeside restaurant after seeing a similar one on the shores of Lake Ioannina in northern Greece, where he had spent several years as an immigrant.
The government declared a national day of mourning, and flags at all public buildings were lowered to half staff. Workers across the country observed a minute of silence at noon, while Parliament suspended its session for Thursday in a sign of respect for the victims. The government has said all the funerals were to be held at public expense. Prime Minister Sali Berisha, President Bamir Topi and Parliament speaker Jozefina Topalli visited the Osmani family to pay their respects before the funeral.
All top officials and politicians, including the opposition ones, visited the victims’ families.
The funeral was delayed for 45 minutes until two sons of the Osmani family came from Italy, where they live as immigrants.
Pain reigned at the homes of the two Osmani families in Tirana outskirts.
Hundreds of persons accompanied the funeral and its convoy of eight funeral cars and many others, including about a dozen busses, with them, that also blocked some Tirana main streets while passing by.
Many people lined along the streets to pay respects, others came out of their cars waiting at the blocked crossroads.
Another funeral was held in the southern town of Berat, hometown of Alban Hysa who organized the party to celebrate his 21st birthday.
All television stations covered live the funeral and many other developments during the day.