Forty-two people have been injured by an explosion of a gas tank in a restaurant in Kosovo’s south-eastern city, Ferizaj on Tuesday.
The Minister of Health of Kosovo, Armend Zemaj visited the injured on Tuesday evening and said that fifteen of them were transferred to the Emergency Center of the University Clinical Center of Kosovo (QKUK) in Prishtina.
Five of injured are being treated at the Intensive Care while another one at the Cardiac Surgery Clinic of the QKUK, the news agency Kosova Press reports.
“The health condition of patients at the moment is claimed to be stable, although with this degree of burning these patients are ranked as patients who are at risk,” the director of Intensive Care of QKUK, Shaqir Uka told Kosovapress on Wednesday.
Uka said that patients’ ages varies from 20 to 45 years old, while the injuries included burns to the skin covering 35- 50% of the body.
Mayor of Ferizaj, Agim Aliu said that they are working on transferring those with serious injuries for further treatment in Turkey.
“We are making every effort for those with serious injuries, to facilitate the recovery procedure in the Republic of Turkey, according to the recommendations of doctors, after establishing contacts by the Municipality of Ferizaj alongside with the Ministry of Health, Clinical University Hospital Service of Kosovo and our request to the Embassy of Turkey in Kosovo,” Aliu wrote on Facebook.
The Ambassador of United States of America in Kosovo, Philip Kosnett expressed his “deepest sympathies to the families of those injured, wishing all a full and speedy recovery”.
On the other side, the candidate for Prime Minister from the opposition Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti recalled that the Tuesday’s explosion happened one week after another one that left twelve injured, saying it was an alarm to competent institutions.
“Two explosions in such a short time are an alarm for the local and central authorities to take over the task of inspecting the premises. Such tragic events that are avoidable cannot simply be called disasters and should not happen. The state is good oversight,” Kurti wrote on Facebook.
