An explosives expert from Zagreb was killed on Wednesday morning in a mine removal operation in the Dardanska Suma Woods on the left bank of the Drava river, near the eastern Croatian town of Osijek, Osijek-Baranja police reported.
Croatian Mine Action Centre (HRC) official Mladen Crnkovic told the media that the killed explosives specialist (born in 1960) worked for Mungos, the company hired for mine removal in the area, which is one of the most mine infested areas in Croatia with another 260,830 square metres still suspected of being infested by mines.
Crnkovic said it was assumed that the area contained some 1,500 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, possibly more.
The mine-removal project in the woods, worth some three million kuna, was launched in mid December.
The head of the HRC office in Osijek, Dubravko Kruserovski, said that including the explosives expert killed today, a total of 39 people had been killed by mines left over from the Homeland Defence War in the Osijek-Baranja County so far.
