Albania’s government on Monday earmarked over 1.57 billion leks (US$19.72 million/12.77 million euro) to compensate for the material damage caused by the ammunition dump blast in Gerdec village, outside Tirana, on March 15.

A team of UN experts arrived in Tirana on the request of the Albanian authorities to help the government deal with the emergency situation created after Saturday's explosion in an ammunition depot.

During the two-week stay the team will evaluate the immediate interventions which need to be made.

The team includes six experts in emergency planning, communication, logistics of emergency management and coordination and environmental impact evaluation.

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated and over 4,200 homes were damaged, of which over 400 completely destroyed.

In the meantime, the operation for cleaning the area from artillery shells spread in a range of three kilometres from the explosion, which killed at least 20 people, continues.