Greek rescue team joins Serbia operation

A Greek rescue team will on Monday join efforts in Serbia and Bosnia, struck in recent days by the worst floods in the Balkans’ modern history.

Eight members of the Hellenic Rescue Team, active under the umbrella of the United Nation’s INSARAG unit, were set to arrive in the areas where heavy rainfall coming down in the course of just a few days has so far killed more than 40 people and forced some 10,000 from their homes.

Reports Sunday said that 25 members of Greece’s EMAK special rescue unit have also been put on standby.

The European Union is providing coordinated assistance to the region through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. So far, Austria, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Hungary and Germany have offered manpower, helicopters and motorboats to support the evacuation effort, as well as to transport drinking water, food and medicine.

Floods and landslides caused by the rain have raised concerns over the fate of an estimated 1 million land mines planted during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war. Bad weather has swept away many of the warning signs around the remaining minefields and experts fear that dislodged mines could travel downstream in the Sava River– and perhaps even get stuck in the turbines of a hydroelectric dam, reports said.