Footballers Andrej Lazarov and Damjan Taneski were amongst the victims of the fire in Kochani on the night of March 16.

photo by Andrej Lazarov

The tragedy in Kochani also took the lives of two young footballers. The first informations about Andrej Lazarov (born in Kochani) from the hospital were that he is doing better, unfortunately short time later he lost his life. Regarding witness statements Andrej tried to help other people to escape the fire. He inhaled a lot of smoke during that what probably caused a huge damage on his lungs. Former youth national team player Andrej, a 25 years old midfielder, was often mentioned on our website as beside his professional career in Macedonia he was for one season also active in the Croatian top division. His last club was FC Shkupi. In the Macedonian top tier he also played for Rabotnichki and Tikvesh.

Damjan Taneski, born in Shtip, was an 18-year-old goalkeeper who recently played for Mal Ajaks. Before that he was part of the youth categories of Vardar, Bregalnica and Kit-Go.

Our thoughts are with their families and close friends.