Smokvica

Croatian MEP Tonino Picula on Tuesday asked the European Commission to give Croatia funds and equipment to help it put out fires raging along the Croatian coast.

Besides seeking help from the EU's Solidarity fund, he urged Brussels to send fire-fighting equipment.

Croatian fire fighters, volunteers and the military are trying to put out raging forest fires that are endangering the population and tourist resorts.

The biggest is blazing on the central part of the Peljesac peninsula on the southern coast, in the villages of Pijavicino, Trstenik and Zuljane.

Prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski says he will soon launch an ex-officio probe, even if the two institutions who he says are primarily in charge of such cases, the Financial Intelligence Agency and the Financial Police, decline to do so.

“We have not received a notice from these two institutions, although legally they should react first, before we do,” Zvrlevski told Faktor news portal.