The number of people who died as a result of the disaster in Shovi increased to 24. As the Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure, Irakli Karseladze, said at a briefing, 3 bodies and body fragments were found today.

“Rescue work continues. 103 units of heavy equipment have been mobilized. The said rescue works are being carried out at 10 locations, where the equipment is involved. We reached the new location by alternative cut across the road, on the other side of the river, where intensive search and rescue operations are underway. The maximum amount of equipment is mobilized. We are already at 103 units in terms of heavy equipment, which are distributed to 10 relevant locations, and the rescue operation is underway according to the instructions of the rescuers”, - said Irakli Karseladze.

“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, the Head of the Emergency Situations Management Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.