Czech PM asks for help from EU Solidarity Fund

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has EU leaders to allocate help to tornado-ravaged South Moravia from the EU’s Solidarity Fund. He also appealed to insurance companies to take “a more humane approach” to assessing damages, noting that hundreds of families were now literally without a roof over their heads.

The prime minister, who was attending an EU summit in Brussels when the natural disaster struck, said his government would do everything possible to ease people’s plight, promising 500 million crowns and more from state coffers. He thanked neighbouring Austria and Slovakia for assisting with the rescue operation. At least five people died and close to two hundred were reported injured.

On Friday afternoon the prime minister visited the worst affected villages to reassure inhabitants of the government's full support. He asked not to be accompanied by journalists.