March 19 (SeeNews) - The Croatian ministry of regional development and EU funds has sent a request for financial support from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to deal with the damage caused by a series of earthquakes that recently hit the town of Petrinja, it said.
The estimated value of the total damage caused by the tremors is 41.6 billion kuna ($6.5 billion/5.5 billion euro), equivalent to 10.2% of the country's gross national income (GNI), the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The potential funding would be used for the repair of the infrastructure and facilities in the affected region, as well as to clean the area to prevent land erosion.
Petrinja and surrounding towns were hit by several earthquakes in late December and early January. The strongest tremor of magnitude 6.2 struck on December 29, killing six people and injuring at least 26.
(1 euro = 7.57417 kuna)