A fire broke out this evening in one of the restaurant galley-boats on the Vardar river in downtown Skopje. The boat, placed near the Holiday Inn hotel, is empty and the city authorities were in the process of removing it. There are no reports of any casualties.

The boats were built as part of the Skopje 2014 urban renewal project led by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. After the SDSM power grab, as many other landmarks built in this time, they fell in disrepair and only one is still open. Shortly ahead of the local elections, SDSM appointed Skopje Mayor Petre Silegov announced that he will begin removing it – a move meant to shore up his base which was energized for years with SDSM led protests against Skopje 2014, but very little of what was built was actually removed by Silegov.