Four people – two men and two women – have died after a pleasure boat capsized on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. The fatalities are a 50-year-old Israeli, a Russian woman – the captain’s partner – and an Italian couple. The two were employees of the Italian secret service. They attended a friend’s birthday who organized the houseboat to celebrate and were aboard privately.
Secretary of State Alfredo Mantovano, responsible for the secret services, expresses his condolences to the victims’ families. The deceased Secret Service agent was 62 years old, his wife 53. According to the fire department, another 21 occupants were rescued after the ship capsized near the town of Lisanza on the south side of the lake.
No Austrians among the victims
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already ruled out on Monday afternoon that Austrians were among the victims. “We can confirm that there were no Austrians among those affected,” media spokeswoman Gabriele Juen confirmed Monday afternoon. Some of the boat’s occupants had to be taken to hospital, five of them were injured, but not seriously. 14 passengers were able to swim to shore, seven others were rescued by rescuers. Apparently people from England and Israel were mainly on board – friendly families who had rented the houseboat for a birthday party, local media reported.
According to the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, the ship capsized due to a tornado. The 16-meter boat was rented by tourists, Fontana confirms on Facebook. There were a total of 23 passengers and two crew members on board the boat.
Divers and fire boats on site
Despite the difficult weather conditions, search and rescue operations continued through the night. Late Sunday evening, a helicopter from the La Spezia Coast Guard, equipped with infrared detectors, also arrived. Several fire trucks with divers and personnel were on the scene and surveyed the coast in the direction of Lisanza, a neighborhood of Sesto Calende, from where the houseboat had departed. The boat sank to a depth of 16 meters.
Prosecutors are already investigating
Prosecutors are now investigating how the boat capsized and why she did not return to port. The province of Varese, in which Sesto Calende is located, was already hit by bad weather around 5 p.m. – causing delays at the nearby Milan-Malpensa airport. The newspaper “Corriere della Sera” quoted from interviews with rescued passengers, according to which the boat suddenly overturned and capsized.
“There have been weather warnings all week,” said Giovanni Buzzi, the mayor of Sesto Calende. However, no major hurricanes were expected, he added. “But such storm events are becoming more and more extreme.”
Source: Krone
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