The information that the rescue operation in Shovi started 3 hours late is false, Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri said in response to the question posed by the MPs regarding the Shovi tragedy.

“Actually, the first report about the landslide in the Shovi area was sent to the Public Safety Management Center 112 on August 3, at 3:07 p.m. The duration of the message was about 2 minutes, after which, at 3:10 p.m., the emergency management service, the local police unit, and the emergency coordination and emergency assistance center were already informed by 112.

Upon receiving the information, the first response team from the Oni fire and rescue unit left for the disaster zone in the shortest possible time - at 15:12, and despite the difficult terrain and long distance, arrived at the site in about half an hour, at 15:40. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that the rescue work in Shovi started immediately.

After the Oni rescue team entered the disaster area, the group from Ambrolauri was unable to move on the same route because the landslide took away the bridge near the village of Glola, through which the first team reached the disaster area. Due to this, the rescue team from Ambrolauri had to use a detour and arrived at the disaster site at 16:05, after which additional rescue teams from Oni and Ambrolauri entered the disaster area.

The first response groups that arrived at the site managed to reach the citizens in separate locations from the forest massif by detours depending on the scale of the disaster.

As a conclusion, I want to inform you that, long before the arrival of the first helicopter in the disaster zone, about half an hour after receiving the notification, the fire-rescuers, as well as the local police, representatives of the border police, brigades of the emergency coordination and emergency assistance center arrived in the shortest possible time. They began to implement rescue measures. As a result of the consistent response, it became possible to bring more than 200 people out of the epicenter of the disaster unharmed.

Accordingly, focusing on delaying the rescue operation is a wrong assessment and a lie”, - said the Minister.