(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 14 SET - Around 35% of Romania's 8.5 million housing units need urgent repairs, a study by Ashna Mathema, a urban development specialist at the World Bank, showed, the portal Romania Insider reported. More than half of the housing in Romania was built before 1970, during the Communist regime, and it is deteriorating due to poor maintenance, Mathema noted, quoted by the portal.

The report highlights as well the high-seismic risk of many buildings in the country, around 10,000 housing units, with 60% of them located in Bucharest, the European capital with the highest seismic risk. Over 2,500 residential blocks in Bucharest need structural strengthening, Romania Insider said. Bucharest was hit by a powerful earthquake in 1977, with epicenter in the Vrancea mountains. More than 1,500 people were killed, most of them in Bucharest. (ANSA).