A boat, which was functioning as a nightclub, sank this morning in Belgrade, in the capital of Serbia. At the time of the incident there were more than 100 people on board. Some have been rescued with boats, but others chose to jump into the water and swim to the coast in the icy Sava River.
Police sources confirmed that, before the Kartel floating nightclub collapsed, several of the people - in panic - chose to jump into the river despite the low water temperature.
Emergency services received the first warnings shortly after midnight, according to the German news agency DPA.
Upon arrival, they found that the boat had begun to sink and they proceeded to evacuate all the people, reaching a total of 114, including several minors.
"We don't know exactly what happened because the party that was going to last until half past two was abruptly cut off before one," said one of the witnesses.
In conversations with a Serbian channel, the witness said that several security men "abruptly boarded the boat" and began to evict the attendees. "People panicked and started getting off the boat, but in a disorderly manner. Everyone was pushing and shouting. It was chaos," he admitted.
In the note, the young man gave details of what happened. "To get to the boat there was a wooden bridge that collapsed. I was on the side and I heard it start to creak. The security people went up there. Then, it didn't take long for the boat to sink," according to him.
Some of the partygoers recorded the unusual escape. They showed how people emerged in single file, climbing the destroyed bridge that linked the ship to the coast. They even saw his pants soaked and with traces of ice.
After the episode went viral, authorities are now trying to determine the causes of the incident.
The first testimonies pointed to a strong fight between a group of people on top of the ship and this would have caused damage that led to its sinking, according to the RTS network. However, this version has not been confirmed.
The confluence between the Sava and Danube rivers is usually a recurring area for parties on boats docked in port areas. And almost a year ago, at the end of 2022, another ship also sank and there were no fatalities.
