Hungary sending structural engineers, specialists to earthquake-hit Albania

Hungary is sending a team of seven structural specialists and engineers to Albania to assess the damage caused by last week’s deadly earthquake, the national disaster management authority (OKF) said on Monday.

The Hungarian team of experts will be inspecting the damage done to buildings, public utility facilities and roads by the 6.4 magnitude earthquake, OKF spokesman Dániel Mukics said in a statement.

The specialists are being sent in cooperation with the foreign ministry, the interior ministry, the disaster management authority, the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the Hungarian Chamber of Engineers, the statement said.

The team left for Tirana on Tuesday morning and is scheduled to return on Dec. 10.

Mukics noted that Hungary has already sent two packages of aid to the Balkan country. The last package, worth 21 million forints (EUR 62,520), was sent last Friday.

Last Tuesday’s earthquake killed a total of 51 people and left thousands homeless.