An Air Serbia plane carrying six tons of humanitarian aid for Syria, which was recently struck by an earthquake, took off Thursday morning from the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.

The first shipment containing about six tons of food and provisions will be delivered to the areas that have been most affected by the earthquake, said the Serbian Defense Ministry.

On behalf of the Serbian Government, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic witnessed the dispatch of the shipment from the Belgrade airport and said he believes more aid will be sent to this country over the next few weeks.

Vucevic said he was proud of Serbia and its citizens who responded to the appeal for emergency assistance.

“This is only the first shipment consisting of just short of six tons of food, and the (Syrian) ambassador told me that over 100 tons of food have been collected so far for Syria alone,” said Vucevic.

He expressed hope that the situation regarding payment transactions with Syria will be addressed soon, so that the Government could donate funds and show that Serbia stands in solidarity with the people in need.

Syrian Ambassador to Serbia Basem Jaman Agha thanked Serbia, its officials and citizens for the aid. “Here we can see parcels and provisions going directly to the airport in Damascus, and there will be more in the period to come,” said the Ambassador.

Air Serbia CEO Jiri Marek said he was pleased that the company was taking part in the relief effort, adding that organizing flights to Damascus at the moment is an extremely complex task.