The authorities in Zagreb on Thursday started demolishing houses which had been given so-called red labels in the wake of the massive March 2020 earthquake, deeming them irreparable.

The demolition, launched nearly 15 months after the quake, started with the property owned by the Sunek family in a largely rural suburb of Granesinski Novaki on the northern outskirts of Zagreb.

The head of the reconstruction fund, set up to finance and coordinate the rebuilding effort, Damir Vandjelic, said that the decisions on the demolition of the damaged property and the reconstruction “were within the remit of the Construction Ministry,” state agency Hina reported.

Presumably this was Vandjelic’s explanation as to why it took 15 months for the first irreparable buildings to get torn down.

According to Hina, Vandjelic “called for the acceleration of the whole process of decision-making, and for making joint efforts to step up the reconstruction.” The massive quake – the strongest felt in Zagreb in 140 years – claimed only one victim, but inflicted massive damage to buildings, especially in the city’s historic 19th-century center.