Emergency Services Criticised Following Drowning

Various media outlets questioned the effectiveness of Syria’s emergency response network after nine schoolgirls drowned in a lake near Damascus on March 19.



Around 40 pupils from a Damascus school for girls were on the overloaded boat when it sank on Lake Zarzar. The tour operator and a man who tried to rescue one of the girls also died.



One of the survivors told media outlets that her teacher put all of the school party on the boat after the owner agreed to lower the price of the tour.



The accident revealed serious problems with the authorities’ emergency response process, according to an opinion article by Mustafa al-Meqdad in the official newspaper Al-Thawra.



“No rescuers arrived on the scene for more than half an hour,” wrote attorney Michael Shammas in a separate opinion piece on the All4Syria website, which is pro-government but also carries criticism.



“The Ministry of Tourism should also be held responsible, because the area was so neglected that it made it difficult to find the lake.”



The pro-government website Syria News said it had been unable to determine which governmental office ended up responding to the emergency call.