The Serbian authorities hired three helicopters to put out the huge fire in the Chinese shopping center in block 70 in New Belgrade.
The fire that broke out this morning around seven o'clock was localized and there were no injuries in the incident, announced the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of Serbia.
Parts of the city were shrouded in acrid smoke from the blaze that engulfed the mall, popular for cheap shops and fast food outlets, as 76 firefighters and 25 fire engines battled to put out the blaze.
"We saved a number of shops ... it was a challenge to prevent people from entering to save their property," said the head of emergency services, Luka Čaušić.
He told Serbian Radio and Television that the cause was the explosion of a gas bottle from a fast food restaurant located in a shopping center.
The City Public Health Institute of Belgrade announced that as a result of the fire, there was an increase in the concentration of pollutants in locations near the shopping center. Citizens were advised to move their activities indoors until the air quality improves.
The largest part of the China Shopping Center in Block 70 was burnt down in a fire in 2021.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that Ka-32 firefighting helicopters bought from Russia were used for the first time in extinguishing the fire. In his address to journalists, he assessed that Serbia is the "best equipped" country in the region for firefighting.
The president of the Belgrade committee of the Zajedno party, Đorđe Miketić, assessed that the fire in the shopping center was part of a scenario to drive away the owners of the bar from that location, so that some investor would build an 11-story building there.
"This is not the first time that a Chinese shopping center has burned down. The same thing happened in 2021, but obviously, it did not burn enough. It's all part of extortion, for the sake of an exclusive plot for construction and the expulsion of small shop owners," Miketić said in a statement.
He added that the company Enjub is the owner of the plot on which the Chinese shopping center is located, as well as the neighboring plot.
"In February 2022, Enjub's request to obtain location conditions for the neighboring plot was submitted, but it was rejected in June of the same year. They submitted a new one in July 2023, but the procedure has not been completed even though it has been a year and a half (unusually long) It's as if the city administration is waiting for a fire, or a disaster, in order to obtain the location conditions for both plots, and probably to unite them," said Miketić.
He believes that the only way to drive out the owners of the premises, who wanted to work in them, was by fire, and that he will now accept any compensation for his property from Enjub.
"According to the new Law on Planning and Construction, the users, i.e. the owners of Enjub, will also become the owners of luxury land in Jurija Gagarina Street", stated Miketić and assessed that "a very profitable fire happened this morning in New Belgrade and engulfed the shopping center, but also someone else's property, workplace, valuables".
According to him, "this scenario allows the company Enjub to become the user and then the owner of two neighboring plots and that, if the city of Belgrade issues location conditions for the combined plots, a "mutated building of 11 floors" will be built on them.
"This is precisely why today Aleksandar Šapić does not appear on the spot and that is why he is silent while New Belgrade is suffocating in the toxic smoke from the Chinese shopping center, because the barbaric robbery of the city and its citizens is in progress - set fire and then loot," stated Miketić.
He reminded that Enjub is owned by Energoprojekt and pointed out that Dobroslav Bojović became the majority owner of that company through "suspicious means" who, "since he took control of the famous Yugoslav giant, fired people and lowered the price, by which the state (co-owner) damaged for over 35 million euros".
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
