Hitrino Blast: Donations to Bulgarian Red Cross Top BGN 2 M

The Bulgarian Red Cross says it has raised more than BGN 2 M within the nationwide donation campaign after the incident in Hitrino earlier in December.

Of these, BGN 1.3 M have been gathered through text messages sent for the campaign, while the others have been donated online or via the bank account offered by the organization, news website Dnevnik.bg quotes its chairman Hristo Grigorov as saying.

In his words, no other BRC campaign in the aftermath of a disaster has managed to draw in the same amount of funding within just a few weeks.

The explosion of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank that derailed from a cargo train killed seven people, injured twenty-nine, and left dozens homeless in the northeastern Bulgarian village.

On Wednesday, the civic council formed to manage the donations agreed for BGN 160 000 of the money to be transferred to Hitrino municipality and provide food for those affected over a period of four months, in chunks of BGN 40 000. `

Separately, Hitrino Mayor Nuridin Ismail is quoted as saying another BGN 10 M are to be secured by state institutions for reconstuction of the village, food for six months, medication and other issues.