The search and rescue operation has been in progress in a round the clock for the ninth day in Oni municipality. Rescuers found another body today, so far 22 bodies have been found - the search for 11 persons continues. Such a statement made today Temur Mghebrishvili, the Head of the Emergency Situations Management Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“Today, rescuers found another body in the bed of Rioni river, and at the moment the body is being exhumed. In addition, the lower limb of the human body was found and active search operations are underway. We are currently monitoring 30-kilometer perimeter, however by the end of the day or tomorrow morning, 54-kilometer perimeter will be monitored. We will cover the whole perimeter, the area of Ambrolauri and we will try to monitor the epicenter of the river as efficiently as possible.

The river current is very fast and there are places, specific locations, where it is physically impossible to move on foot in the riverbed. Therefore the involvement of boats is on the agenda, we use boats to have to access to so-called island. On the islands and on the left bank of the river, where the river actually flows under the rocks - there are places inaccessible by foot.

The water level in the river has already lowered more or less, therefore small islands appeared in the bed where a large amount of inert material, logs have assembled. As a result of inspecting the mentioned area, we reached this result, I would like to emphasize once again that this monitoring is not a one-time event, it will be performed until we carry out search works”, - said Temur Mghebrishvili.