Bulgarians Raise BGN 615 000 via SMS for Affected by Floods

A charity campaign to support people affected by last week's flash floods has gathered BGN 615 000 (rougly EUR 307 500) via text messages in less than three days.

Another BGN 70 000 have been transferred to the bank accounts of the Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation (BCAF), which manages the event, its representatives were quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio as saying.

The funds are solely dedicated to restoring the normal track of life in hardest-hit areas and helping those who lost property in the flood or saw their usual life severely disrupted.

They will not be allocated to recovering infrastructure.

A message with "DMS VARNA" as a text could be sent either to 17 777 to support BCAF's campaign or to 1466 to contribute to efforts made at the Bulgarian Red Cross. The price is BGN 1 and they are VAT-free.

The torrential rains that hit northeastern Bulgaria on Thursday have claimed the lives of 11 people in Varna and one in Dobrich, flooding houses, businesses and agricultural areas.