SERBIA: Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announces three days of national mourning as the country struggles to deal with the worst flooding in the Balkan region since records began
Record ID:
694911
SERBIA: Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announces three days of national mourning as the country struggles to deal with the worst flooding in the Balkan region since records began
- Title: SERBIA: Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announces three days of national mourning as the country struggles to deal with the worst flooding in the Balkan region since records began
- Date: 20th May 2014
- Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (MAY 20, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT BUILDING SERBIAN FLAG SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER ALEKSANDAR VUCIC ARRIVING AT CABINET MEETING AND TAKING SEAT (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER, ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SAYING: "We are making May 21, 22 and 23 official national days of mourning. It will be three days, meaning Wednesday, Thursday and Friday." CREST ON SERBIAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER, ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SAYING: "The damage will unfortunately be much bigger and Serbia has qualified for funding from the EU Solidarity Fund." CABINET MEMBERS AT MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER, ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SAYING: "We thought that because of the weather conditions, and because the water levels of the Sava river were dropping, that we were close to the end but unfortunately the so-called backwater and the wet dams -- by this I mean the fact that sandbags are filled with water -- are causing more problems." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER, ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SAYING: "Thank you to the people who agreed to the evacuation, because it is more important that we save lives. After all, considering the scale of the catastrophe, you will also see that in the scale of the material damage, we have been hit ten times more than all the other countries in the region and I hope that this will not show in the number of victims." MEETING
- Embargoed: 4th June 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Serbia
- Country: Serbia
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAD5XLWV2CC77ZX6I3C8J5PHE97
- Story Text: Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced on Tuesday (May 20) that there would be three days of national mourning for the victims of the most severe flooding to hit the Balkan region since records began.
"We are making May 21, 22 and 23 official national days of mourning. It will be three days, meaning Wednesday, Thursday and Friday," Vucic told a meeting of the cabinet in the capital Belgrade.
At least 40 people are now known to have been killed in the floods across the region which were caused after the heaviest rainfall since records began 120 years ago caused rivers to burst their banks and triggered hundreds of landslides.
The death toll has continued to rise as water levels have receded, revealing the extent of the destruction caused.
Vucic, who on Monday (May 19) estimated the cost of the damage to be in the hundreds of millions of euros, said that the country would be able to apply for financial aid from the European Union.
"The damage will unfortunately be much bigger and Serbia has qualified for funding from the EU Solidarity Fund," he told government ministers.
He added that despite floodwaters receding in some areas, more problems would still have to be overcome.
"We thought that because of the weather conditions, and because the water levels of the Sava river were dropping, that we were close to the end but unfortunately the so-called backwater and the wet dams -- by this I mean the fact that sandbags are filled with water -- are causing more problems," he said.
According to police figures, at least 30,000 people have been evacuated across Serbia, but many more are believed to have fled the flooding.
The prime minister praised those people who agreed to leave their homes.
"Thank you to the people who agreed to the evacuation, because it is more important that we save lives. After all, considering the scale of the catastrophe, you will also see that in the scale of the material damage, we have been hit ten times more than all the other countries in the region and I hope that this will not show in the number of victims," he said.
In neighbouring Bosnia, the government said on Monday that more than a quarter of its 4 million people had been affected by the worst floods to hit the Balkans in living memory, comparing the "terrifying" destruction to that of the country's 1992-95 war. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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