Eight dead as canoes crushed in dam waters
Two people managed to swim ashore after their boats crumpled, overturned and capsized but one died in the hospital, raising the death toll to eight, according police spokesman Robert Perc. The second survivor remained hospitalised.
The accident happened late on Thursday, when two large canoes decided to run over a dam under construction near Sevnica, a town 90km south-east of the capital of Ljubljana. At that section, the dam, part of a hydroelectric plant, is built only to about the height of the water.
Slovenian TV journalist Goran Rovan, who had been in one of the safe canoes, told the state-run news agency STA the other canoes capsized and broke apart when they hit the whitewater passing through the dam gates. The occupants fell into the river and were sucked underwater by the rapids.
Perc said Sevnica mayor Kristijan Janc, who also is a member of parliament, was among the dead.
