After the Ammonia Spill near Pirot: No Air Pollution near Bulgaria, 2 Victims Reported (UPDATED)

Incidents | December 26, 2022, Monday // 12:23|  views

@BNT

A mobile team of the Environmental Executive Agency will monitor the air quality in the area of the village of Kalotina to the border point with Serbia, after today’s incident with cargo train carrying ammonia derailing in the area of the Serbian town of Pirot.

The experts will monitor the indicators through a mobile automatic station for measuring the quality of the ambient air.

The station will be set up today near the border post and will remain there in the coming days.

At the moment, the Serbian environmental authorities do not report any exceedances of air quality standards up to the border with Bulgaria. The Serbian side will inform the Bulgarian control authorities if a change in the situation is reported.

The incident took place along the course of the nearby Nishava River, which rises under Mount Kom in the Berkovski Mountain.

Given the direction of the river's current, pollution of its waters on Bulgarian territory could not be expected, according to the Environmental Agency

Bulgaria's Consul General in Nis: There is a second victim after the ammonia spill incident near Pirot

"There is a second victim after the ammonia spill incident near Pirot", Dimitar Tsanev, Consul General of Bulgaria in Nis, Serbia, confirmed to BNT.

"This is a driver of a Turkish truck, for whom the cause of death has not yet been confirmed," he explained. The first person who died had multiple comorbidities and is believed to have died of stress, it has not been confirmed whether ammonia was the cause, the consul general said.

He also indicated that several Bulgarian citizens contacted him. "Now less than half an hour ago, one of our Bulgarian citizens contacted us, who was transported to Nis in the evening and is currently undergoing additional tests. He feels well, we are in touch with him, we are communicating, his indicators are good, but they are keeping him just in case. All others screened have been released for treatment. We have one case of a family whose documents were left in their car and because they don't have access to the car they can't go home without documents. Their relatives brought documents, but the girl's passport has expired and we will issue her a passport."

"There is still no official information from the Serbian authorities. Everything is based on personal contacts and monitoring of the situation by the media. Nobody has officially informed us", Dimitar Tsanev also pointed out.

"Measurements are being made, so far the ammonia indicators are within the norm, there are no worries, the Nishava flows inland towards Serbia, there is no danger of it being transferred to Bulgaria. In the morning, measurements were made at four points and the indicators are below the dangerous norms. The state of emergency will remain, the decision will be taken later in the day by the local authorities", the consul added.

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Tags: ammonia, air, pirot, Bulgarian

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