Heavy metal band Metallica donates 250,000 euros for Romanian pediatric hospital

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - American heavy metal band Metallica has donated 250,000 euros to a Romanian association building the country's first pediatric oncology hospital, they said.

The donation to Daruieste Viata (Give Life), founded in 2012, came ahead of the band's sold out concert on Wednesday, its fourth in the European Union state since 1999, the association said on its Facebook page.

The donation was made through the band's non-profit foundation All Within My Hands, it said in a statement, and it includes 200,000 in sponsorship money from Mastercard and local bank BCR for a Metallica concert in Bucharest.

Construction began in mid-2018 on the hospital in Bucharest, one of the few to be built in Romania over the last three decades. The project is expected to be completed next year, with donations from 260,000 individuals and slightly fewer than 2,000 companies so far.

Romania has one of the EU's least developed infrastructure due to weak public administration, corruption and bureaucracy, despite years of strong economic growth and billions of euros in EU funding. The current government has repeatedly postponed plans to build three new regional hospitals for which the EU has allocated funds.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Richard Chang and Hugh Lawson)