WARSAW, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday announced the official death toll for the recent floods in the country, as a response to the spread of disinformation that the government was concealing the true number of fatalities.
According to Tusk, nine people have died in the floods that hit Poland in recent weeks.
"We are still talking about nine fatalities confirmed in the flooded areas, including seven Poles, one Czech and one German citizen," Tusk said during a meeting of the Council of Ministers open to the media.
He criticized the spreading of information that hundreds of people were killed and that the government was attempting to conceal this. The disinformation "brings no relief to anyone," he said, adding that he hoped "the dark chapter of disinformation has ended."
Poland's Council of Ministers is set to adopt a resolution allowing for the coordination of reconstruction work in departments affected by the floods. A reconstruction team will be established as an auxiliary body of the Council, Tusk said.
Marcin Kierwinski, the government's representative for post-flood reconstruction, said that approximately 200 million zlotys (51 billion U.S. dollars) of aid has already reached flood victims in Poland, while another 13 million zlotys will be paid out by Wednesday.
The worst floods in at least two decades have recently wreaked havoc across Central Europe, with Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic among the worst-affected countries. Poland estimated that the flood damage could amount to 9 billion U.S. dollars, roughly one percent of the country's economic output. (1 zlotys = 0.25 U.S. dollar) ■