In Oni municipality, the search operations in the disaster zone are ongoing for the ninth day. Firefighters found 3 bodies today. At the end of the day, Temur Mgebrishvili, head of the Emergency Situations Management Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, made a summary comment to the media regarding the ongoing work.
According to him, as of this time, 24 bodies have been found, 20 of them have been identified, and the search for 9 people is ongoing. As Mghebrishvili mentioned, as of today, 40% of the collapsed area has been searched through.
"Works are actively underway, both with live force, heavy equipment and swimming means of transportation - boats on the river. Today, it was possible to detect 3 bodies in the river bed, all three of them have been taken to a forensics facility. In addition, the lower limb of a person was noticed separately and was also transferred to a forensics facility. The first body was found about 20 km away from the epicenter of the disaster while the other 2 bodies were 2 km away, and with a radius of 200 meters from each other. The river has been monitored since the first day, at this stage, as the river level has dropped, there have been places where it has become possible to check on the spot. Tomorrow, a perimeter of 54 km will be controlled, this is exactly in the vicinity of the Ambrolauri airport, where the river bed is already stretched to the maximum. As of now, 24 bodies have been found, 20 of them have been identified, and the search for 9 people is ongoing. As of today, 40% of the collapsed area has been checked," said Temur Mghebrishvili.
Police units, rescuers of the Emergency Situations Management Service, K-9 unit experts, border police helicopters, drones, rescue boats and special equipment are involved in the work. Also, employees of the Ministry of Defense and the employees of the Department of Roads of Ministry of Infrastructure are working in the disaster zone.
