Flags will be flying at half mast throughout the country on Monday in memory of the victims aboard the Ilinden ship. File photo by BGNES
Monday, September 7, 2009, is going to be the official mourning day in Bulgaria for the casualties of the ship accident in the Ohrid Lake tragedy that happened Saturday.
This was announced by Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, at a special press conference Saturday night.
All celebrations for Bulgaria's Unification Day, September 6, have been canceled over the tragedy.
Borisov announced that 11 bodies of Bulgarian citizens who drowned in Ohrid Saturday after the Ilinden ship sank had been identified. The people come from the Bulgarian towns of Pirdop, Zlatitsa, Chelopech, and Anton. Their names are to be released by the government press center. A total of 15 bodies have been recovered from the lake.
Six other elderly women are also believed to be among the casualties, as they went inside ship because of the scorching sun, and are missing; their bodies have not been recovered but they are believed to have drowned inside the ship.
The names of those identified are: Georgi Metanov, Kuna Madzharova, Todor Stamenov, Nevenka Nikolova, Slavka Ivanova, Binka Gushanova, Mariya Dimitrova, Nonko Madzharov, Gina Georgieva, Pavel Pavlov, Lyshka Georgieva.
Borisov said the government was ready any moment to send a military transport plane Spartan in order to bring to Bulgaria the dead bodies.
A Bulgarian government plane Tu 154 has already landed in Macedonia in order to collect the survivors.
PM Borisov has expressed his conviction that the Macedonian authorities will do everything necessary to punish those responsible for the tragedy.