Israeli among four killed in boating accident in Italy

One Israeli, a retired Defense Ministry official, was among four people who drowned after a boat capsized on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy on Sunday night, the Foreign Ministry reported Monday.

Twenty-four Italians, Britons and Israelis were celebrating a birthday party onboard when the boat capsized in extreme weather, according to media reports. Most of the passengers were able to swim to safety, but four drowned, including a 50-year-old Israeli.

The Israeli Consulate in Rome confirmed the man’s death and said his family had been notified. The other victims were an Italian man and woman and the skipper’s wife, who was Russian, Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported.

Boat shouldn't have been on the water due to weather

The boat should not have been in the water because extreme weather, including thunderstorms, had begun in the area more than two hours earlier, and other boats had returned to shore long before the accident occurred, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported. 

Authorities had not yet retrieved the boat, the report said.

The lake where the boat capsized is in the same area as the cable-car crash two years ago that left Eitan Biran an orphan. Biran was then kidnapped by his grandfather and taken to Israel. Israeli courts ruled that Biran must be returned to his aunt and uncle in Italy with whom he had been living.