TIRANA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- A boat sank in Lake Farka near the Albanian capital Tirana on Wednesday night, killing 16 people, including two children, police said Thursday.

    The boat, belonging to a restaurant on the shores of Lake Farka, was overloaded with people celebrating the birthday of 5-year-old twins when it sank in the lake about 10 km east of Tirana.

    The bodies of the 16 victims have been recovered from the lake, including seven men, seven women and the 5-year-old twin boys. Fourteen of the dead belonged to two families and four people survived the accident.

    Police attributed the disaster to overloading, as 20 revelers had crowded onto the boat, which had a capacity for only seven.

    Police were investigating the accident, trying to determine whether the boat capsized because the partygoers had been drunk.

    Albania's Interior Minister Bujar Nishani went to the site and expressed his condolences to the victims' families.