At least 16 people drowned today when a boat carrying more than 70 tourists sank on a Macedonia's Lake Ohrid, officials said.
Most of the 16 people who drowned were Bulgarians, Macedonia's interior minister said.
The boat, which port authorities said had a capacity for 43 people, had 73 people on board, Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska said.
The wreckage of the sightseeing boat, which had been in use since the 1930s, could be seen resting at the bottom of the clear waters.
Dead bodies wrapped in blankets and were lined up on the lake shore. The accident took place only some 200 metres offshore and the wreckage could be seen at the bottom of the lake's clear waters.
People at the scene tried to help with their small boats. Local media said the boat's captain was being questioned by the police.
A woman survivor told Bulgarian national television the boat listed before sinking. "I cannot swim and exactly at the moment when I sank, I remembered the Titanicmovie and the guide who said the lake was over 200 metres deep," she said.
"I thought I would be at the bottom because I cannot swim."
The prime ministers of Macedonia and Bulgaria have spoken by telephone and Bulgaria is to send a plane to transfer the dead, the government official said.
The Macedonian cabinet is holding an emergency session today, and there will be national mourning for the victims tomorrow. Transportation Minister Mile Janakijevski said he had offered to resign over the accident.
Lake Ohrid is Macedonia's best known tourist resort.
Reuters