Agriculture Minister: Inspections in forests around flooded villages will continue as long as necessary

"We're going to the place where the locals who alerted us to all the stuff are taking us - to see what comes out on paper as logging and whether it's true. " This is what Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev said before the start of today's inspection in the forests around the flood-affected villages of Karlovo.

The companies that harvested the timber are also being checked - the interrogations are being conducted by the police, the minister said.

"We have full preparedness - we have national police, local police, Forestry Agency, representatives of the regional ministry from the Basin Directorate and the Regional Inspectorate for Environmental Protection - the mayors of the villages are here, we have full preparedness of cartographers, maps 10 years back what the clearings were", said Yavor Gechev.

Signals of local people will also be checked. A variety of equipment, including drones, will help determine whether violations have occurred. The inspections will continue as long as necessary and the information from today's rounds will be processed within days and will be made public, the minister assured.