Greece to protest to Serbia over crash of Ukrainian cargo plane

Athens, July 19 Greece will file a demarche (protest presented through diplomatic channels) with Serbia over the country's failure to inform Athens about the dangerous cargo carried by the Antonov plane that crashed in northern Greece last Saturday, Greek media reported.

The crash killed the plane's eight Ukrainian crew members. Their bodies were found and identified on Sunday, the Greek news agency AMNA reported on Monday.

The Greek ambassador in Belgrade will deliver the demarche, according to which the Serbian authorities should have notified Athens earlier that the Ukrainian-registered aircraft that crashed near the city of Kavala city was transporting 11.5 ton of ammunition to Bangladesh, the daily Kathimerini reported, citing diplomatic sources.

On Monday, a special disaster response unit was still removing dangerous wreckage from the crash site, Xinhua news agency reported.

On Sunday, the Greek authorities were put on alert for toxic fumes and called on the residents of nearby communities to stay indoors with doors and windows closed until experts determined that there was no evidence of dangerous substances for public health.