Rescuers fought strong currents in the Sava River in southeastern Slovenia Friday as they searched for five people still missing after two canoes were crushed running over a dam. Divers had already recovered six bodies.
Three people managed to swim ashore after their boats crumpled, overturned and capsized, but two of them died Friday in the hospital, raising the confirmed death toll to 8, according to police spokesman Robert Perc. The third survivor remained hospitalized.
The accident happened late Thursday when two large canoes decided to run over a dam under construction near Sevnica, a town 56 miles southeast of the capital, Ljubljana. At that section, the dam — part of a hydroelectric plant — is currently built only to about the height of the water surface.
The trip — ominously dubbed “The Final Descent” — was organized by local officials and all participants were Slovenians. It was to be the last ride down that section of the river, which will soon be blocked by the hydroelectric plant.
Two other canoes left the river before reaching the dam site.
Sucked under 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
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