Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Monday the civil protection system responded exceptionally swiftly in dealing with the aftermath of last week's earthquakes.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, he said the system immediately started saving lives, extracting people out of the rubble, providing medical assistance and evacuating people.

Bozinovic said structural engineers began estimating the damage on the day of the first earthquake last Monday.

Civil protection has been removing debris, setting up accommodation and providing people with food, water and other necessities, he said, adding that police were deployed to ensure order and prevent crimes, and that drones were being used to record the damage.

Thirty people saved from under rubble

Bozinovic said firefighters received over 5,000 calls and responded to over 2,500, rescuing 30 people from under the rubble.

He said Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (HGSS) search dogs located six trapped persons and that HGSS members toured 200 affected villages, providing assistance.

Red Cross has distributed 120 tonnes of food and 150,000 litres of water

The Croatian Red Cross has distributed 120 tonnes of food and 150,000 litres of water as well as provided psycho-social support, Bozinovic said, adding that 200 police officers were also on the ground.

He said the police recorded a small number of offences committed in quake-affected areas but not one case of looting.

Bozinovic went on to say that 14 EU member states (Slovenia, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgarian, Sweden, Lithuania, France, Portugal, Germany)  responded to the call for international assistance, as did Turkey, while Spain, Switzerland, North Macedonia, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Finland offered help bilaterally.

They have supplied 101 housing containers, 980 winter tents, 4,770 folding beds, 2,870 sleeping bags, 550 heaters and 51 wood-burning stoves.

“We can say that a lot has been done but that there is a lot of work ahead. We won’t stop until every person affected by the earthquake has been provided for,” Bozinovic said.