ROSARIO, Argentina - The country on Wednesday mourned the loss of five highschool buddies from the city of Rosario who were killed when a driver of a pickup truck plowed through a bike path in New York where they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation.

"They went to celebrate life, and found death," said Jorge Cetta, a spokesman for the victims' polytechnic high school.

Flags flew at half-staff in Rosario, and the city declared three days of mourning. On the banks of the Parana River in northern Argentina, Rosario is the country's main grain-exporting hub, as well as hometown to revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and soccer great Lionel Messi.

Dozens of people held a candlelight vigil on Wednesday night at the 111-year-old high school. The crowd was made up of parents and children and former and current students.

"The feeling is one of impotence, that a crazy person cut their lives off like that," said Marta Albert, a 58-year-old nurse and graduate of the school.

In Buenos Aires, President Mauricio Macri praised the five architects and businessmen as model citizens.

"We must all stand together in the fight against terrorism," he said.

The president, who has a previously scheduled trip to New York next week, spoke on Wednesday with US President Donald Trump, who expressed his condolences, Macri's office said.

The family and employees of one of the victims, businessman Ariel Erlij, remembered them in a letter to the Argentine newspaper Clarin. "This is sad news for the world, but even more so for those of us who had the opportunity of getting to know them," the letter read.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry identified the other victims as Hernan Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damian Pagnucco and Hernan Ferruchi.

The reunion trip was partially financed by Erlij, the chief executive of Ivanar, an Argentine steel products manufacturing company.

Another classmate, Martin Ludovico Marro, was being treated at a hospital.

Reuters - Ap

(China Daily 11/03/2017 page12)