Emergencies: tourist boat capsized in Italy: four people dead

emergencies
Tourist boat capsized in Italy, four people dead

Four people die in a boat accident on Lake Maggiore (symbol image). photo

© picture alliance / dpa

The boat had been rented for a birthday party. Then suddenly a storm comes up. There are dead and injured.

Four people died in a boat accident on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. This was announced by the fire department in the morning. The night before, a sudden storm with strong winds had capsized the boat. A man and a woman from Italy, a Russian woman and a man from Israel were killed. This was announced by the public prosecutor’s office in the city of Busto Arsizio near Milan, as reported by the Ansa news agency.

When asked by dpa, the German consulate general in Milan said that no Germans were among the fatalities. Israel’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, confirmed the death of an approximately 50-year-old Israeli.

In the morning, divers from the fire department had recovered the body of the fourth and final victim from the bottom of the lake. No other people were missing. The fire brigade had already announced during the night that 19 people were rescued after the accident. How many people were exactly on the boat was still unclear in the morning. It was also initially unclear whether there were German citizens among those rescued and whether they were possibly injured.

According to initial findings, the boat was rented for a birthday party. It may have been a houseboat – according to media reports, boats of this type are increasingly being rented out to tourists on Italy’s second largest lake on the Swiss border. The President of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, had written about a “sailing boat” on Facebook that night.

investigations are ongoing

This capsized on Sunday around 7 p.m. during a storm at the southern end of the lake near the town of Sesto Calende, which belongs to the Lombardy region. It had probably been caught by a sudden hurricane. A number of people were able to swim to shore about 150 meters away and get help.

The Coast Guard and Fire Brigade deployed boats, a helicopter and divers. The carabinieri determined the background of the accident, such as why the boat did not return to the port in time – there had been severe weather warnings before.

dpa

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