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President of North Macedonia visits the site of the fire in Tetovo

Tetovo (North Macedonia) Sep 9 (EFE / EPA). - (Camera: Georgi Licovski) The number of deaths in the fire that occurred Wednesday's night in a container that served as a covid unit in the Macedonian city of Tetovo has risen to 14, and the identification process is becoming difficult because some victims have been burned.FOOTAGE ANND SOUNDBITES FROM FROM THE PRESIDENT OF NORTH MACEDONIA, STEVO PENDAROVSKI.TRANSLATION:1. "I came to express my solidarity with the citizens of Tetovo, with those who lost their loved ones and also to speak with the authorities. The prosecutor informed me that in an hour or two they will formally complete the inspection, which is in its second day and they will give their report as soon as possible. The procedure is: they give orders to other competent institutions, from the autopsy to the Ministry of the Interior. After receiving these reports separately, they will prepare their own summary report in which we will first see , what is the cause of the fire and, secondly, if there is any human error behind it.By now, I suppose you are familiar with the latest decision of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia to declare three days of national mourning and request foreign experts to help with such specific events and specific fires.From what I heard from the head of the fire department, the entire building burned down in just a few minutes. (...) I have no doubt that in a short time we will know the true cause.What I want to state publicly is that because there was some speculation, this morning I spoke with the President of Slovenia, Pahor, who asked me the same thing. There are various speculations that they may have been planted, which has to do with 30 years of independence (...) so far there is no indication that this has been done deliberately, in order to achieve any other political objective. "