Transport Minister Claims There’s No Need To Panic over Ammonia Leak

Goran Vesic (BETAPHOTO/Milos Miskov)

Expert teams have measured ammonia levels at five locations in Pirot after freight train derailment causing ammonia leak, and have not detected ammonia in the air, Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesic has said. 

Vesic arrived in Pirot, southeastern Serbia, in the morning on Dec. 26, saying there was no need to panic, but there was need for “caution,” stressing that the local citizens should be careful and abide by the recommendations of the authorities.  

Answering to reporters’ question about the cause of the train derailment and the remark that that this was not the first such incident, Vesic said that the accident was to blame on poor infrastructure, noting he did not need “a commission to establish this fact.”  

Vesic added that the question was why a call for tenders for reconstruction of this section of the railway had not been issued for three years, although, he said, the funds had been ensured through a loan.  

A state of emergency has been declared in Pirot after a freight train carrying ammonia derailed in the afternoon on Dec. 25.  

More than 50 persons have received medical treatment following the leak.