Officials from the Vatican and the Caritas humanitarian organization delivered Thursday EUR 70,000 to Kraljevo, a city in central Serbia that was hit by a strong earthquake back in November.

Apostolic Nuncio to Serbia Orlando Antonini, Archbishop of Belgrade Stanislav Hocevar and Caritas coordinator Daniel Galun stated that the aid was an expression of solidarity with the people of Kraljevo.

Antonini signed off a EUR 20,000 donation for Kraljevo to help rebuild the city.

The other EUR 50,000 were collected through Caritas and will be spent on food and construction material.

Antonini said he was pleased he had fulfilled his promise that the Holy See would help Kraljevo.

This is an expression of solidarity from the Catholic Church, he noted, while Galun said Caritas wanted to help the city's economy.

According to Galun, the funds will be given to companies from Kraljevo to buy food, equipment for hygiene and construction material.

Kraljevo Mayor Ljubisa Simovic thanked the Catholic representatives for the aid, adding that the the work on the project for the reconstruction of the local Catholic church was under way.