Relatives of the victims of the February train fire that left nine people dead were considering a civil lawsuit against the Bulgarian state, Focus news agency reported on May 10.

The families of eight of the nine victims were in talks about the damages they planned to demand, according to Ana Rasheva, the daughter of Rasho Rashev, the director of Bulgaria’s National Archaeological Institute, quoted by Focus.

The relatives would see the results of the expert's opinion on the causes of the fire and attend the hearings of the Parliament committee investigating the fire next week, she said after a ceremony in which her father was awarded the honorary citizen of Shoumen distinction posthumously.

The expert report into the train fire of February 28, carried out by the fire safety institute of the Interior Ministry with the help of foreign experts, was completed last week, Bulgarian news agency BTA said earlier.

The fire started at about midnight on the train from Sofia to Kardam on the border with Romania, in the Dobrich region. As the train was entering the town of Cherven Bryag, the fire started in a couchette carriage, which had 35 people in it at the time, and then spread to a sleeping coach with 27 people.