Bulgaria Takes Scores of Moscow Children as Smog Disaster Help

Pedestrians wearing medical masks to protect from smog walk in central Moscow. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Russia is sending 10 000 children and hundreds of elderly to Bulgaria and the Ukraine to save them from the smoldering heat and overpowering smog in Moscow, the city’s Mayor, Yriy Luzhkov, announced Tuesday.

“We will transport South a large group of the capital’s residents, about 1 600, who are in the health risk group so that they can be able to breath and receive medical attention,” Luzhkov stated during a meeting with Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

In addition, in just days, 10 000 children, some of whom need medical attention, will travel to Bulgaria, not only during their summer break, but in September and October as well to Moscow’s own pioneer camp in Kamchiya, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, according to the Mayor.

The announcement came in the wake of an offer of Bulgaria’s PM, Boyko Borisov, extended to Putin on Monday. During a phone conversation between the two, Borisov told his Russian counterpart Bulgaria is ready to accept for rehabilitation children and firemen who have been hurt by the blaze.

Moscow has been smothered for days by dense smog created by wildfires and the concentration of harmful substances in the air is exceeding the norm 7 times. Authorities further inform the mortality rate in the city is up two times.

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