Collective shelters still home to around 2,500 people

BELGRADE - The number of collective shelters for people from flood-hit areas in Belgrade is decreasing, with around 2,500 people still accommodated in them, Belgrade Assistant Mayor Irena Vujovic said on Saturday.

Works are under way to re-equip an army barracks in Obrenovac so that those people can be relocated there and be closer to their homes, she said.

The Belgrade Arena will be closed by Monday, and relief aid stored there will be taken to the Belgrade Fair, Vujovic said.

There will be enough volunteers for the task and the arena will soon resume normal operation, Vujovic told TV Pink.

Since the first evacuation orders in Obrenovac, 150 buses owned by Lasta and the city public transport company carried 25,000 people to safety, she said.

Technical water and electricity supplies have resumed in Obrenovac, and efforts are under way to put the sewage system back into operation, Vujovic said.

Commenting on protests of people who have been relocated to collective shelters from hotels, she said that they should know that hotels sell their accommodation capacities beforehand and that no one could have known how long the current situation would last.

Photo Tanjug, D. Stankovic (archive)