RIGA, April 22 (LETA) - At the moment, about 450,000 residents of Riga have no access to emergency shelters, Gints Reinsons, head of the Civil Protection and Operational Information Administration, said at a meeting of Riga City Council's Security, Public Order and Corruption Prevention Committee on Wednesday.

Currently, emergency shelters are available to a little more than 200,000 residents of Riga.

Shelters are divided into four categories - public, local, private, and classified.

Public shelters are open to any resident. Local shelters only have enough space for people in the respective building, such as schoolchildren and teachers.

Private shelters are located on private property and require consent to be made public. Classified shelters are those used by state and local authorities that maintain critical infrastructure.

As Reinsons explained, he did not have the right answer at the moment on where some 450,000 residents of Riga could seek shelter in the event of a crisis, in which case the number of people in the city would actually be higher.

Therefore a targeted construction and reconstruction support program is necessary.

The basements of Stalin-era apartment buildings are very well suited to house shelters, added Reinsons.

Earlier this week, Riga City Council published a digital map of shelters inspected by the State Fire and Rescue Service and Riga City Council's Civil Protection and Operational Information Department and deemed fit for purpose.

The map has been published on the georiga.eu portal.