Tina and Sara found crushed under rubble, holding hands; The girls perished together with their grandfather

Photo: Nikola Tomic

Valentina (Tina) and Sara, aged 9 and 5, are among the 14 victims of Friday's collapse of a part of the Novi Sad railway station.

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They were found under the debris together with their 53-year-old grandfather Djordje. The three members of the Firic family will be buried on Tuesday in Kovilj.

The girls and their grandfather will be laid to rest together.

Djordje, firmly holding the girls' hands so they wouldn't run onto the tracks, was headed to Loznica, to the home of the children's maternal grandfather, Branko Matic, to celebrate the second day of the family feast of Saint Luka.

Even the deadly chunks of concrete that suddenly fell onto them from a height of ten meters, killing all three, did not tear them away from one another. They were found still holding hands.

Accompanied by the sounds of the family crying, two small and one large coffins were delivered to a Kovilj chapel today. Tina and Sara's father, Djordje, had the hardest task: to gather the strength and go and identify the bodies of his daughters and his father, who he was named after.

The death notice; Photo: Telegraf.rs

"Only he (the father), out of all of us, saw the bodies. The rest weren't strong enough to do it. Since then, he has not spoken a word. We have all been taking sedatives since Friday, without them we would not have endured this much grief," Branko Matic told us in a barely audible voice, and then started sobbing.

"My heart broke when a rescuer told me that the (other) grandfather, Tina and Sara, were found crushed by the rubble, but still hodling hands. The grandpa didn't let go off them even as he was dying," Matic said.

Neighbors, residents of Kovilje - a settlement of about 5,000 people in northern Serbia - those close to the family and those that didn't know them well, continue to arrive to the Firic home to pay respects and support the family in their grief. The three deaths that the family has sustained broke everyone's heart.

Photo: Social networks

The Firic and Matic families said they are grateful to the city of Novi Sad that helped with funerals costs.

14 victims were found under the rubble on Friday, seven males and seven females, while three people, who were seriously injured, are still in critical condition as of Monday. The doctors at the Clinical Center of Vojvodina are fighting for their lives.

The Public Enterprise Cistoca, where Djordje Firic was employed, also offered help to the family.

"It means a lot to us. They (the family) here in Kovilj are not in a good financial situation, and I am in Loznica on a disability pension, and grow strawberries for a living," says Branko Matic.

Matic added that his fellow citizens in Loznica are also paying their respects. His sister Sanja Lazic, who is in that town, asked him to send photos of the girls and their grandfather Djordje, so that they can be displayed in the central square where people are lighting candles for their souls.

(Telegraf.rs/Novosti.rs)