Serbia declares state of emergency

BELGRADE - The Serbian government declared Thursday a state of emergency due to heavy rainfalls and floods.

The government sent a letter to the Russian government, the European Commission and the Slovenian government asking for humanitarian and technical help to address the consequences of floods, it was stated after the government's session.

The government ordered to the Directorate for Commodity Reserves to deliver to the most affected areas a thousand tons of commercial corn needed as feed.

The state of emergency in the territory of entire Serbia was declared on the request of the National Emergency Situations Headquarters, which earlier on Thursday conferred to discuss heavy rainfalls and floods.

This is the greatest flooding disaster in the history of Serbia, said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who is also the head of the Emergency Situations Headquarters.

He underlined at the session that two lives have been lost, and extended condolences to the families.

A four-month quantity of rain fell in Valjevo, Cacak, Loznica, Ub and Lazarevac in one day, Vucic said.

The prime minister said that drinking water is a great problem in the affected municipalities since many roads are impassable for tanks.

Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic informed the members of the Headquarters that the situation in a correctional facility in Valjevo was particularly difficult, since the whole ground floor had been evacuated and a number of the prisoners moved to Belgrade during the night, while those serving sentences for serious crimes were now on a higher floor.

The river tore down two of the perimeter walls, threatening the security system of the facility, he noted, adding that...