Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, is in Racha, Oni municipality.
The Minister of Internal Affairs inspected the disaster zone from a helicopter and got acquainted with the scope of ongoing works and search and rescue works in details.
Vakhtang Gomelauri spoke with the firemen, rescuers, employees of the Ministry of Defense working in the epicenter of the disaster and attended search and rescue events.
The Minister also held a working meeting at the field headquarters, where he was informed about the current situation from the head of the Emergency Situations Management Service, Temur Mghebrishvili.
The meeting was also attended by the representatives of the Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti state representatives, Papuna Margvelidze, and local authorities.
The Minister of Internal Affairs met with the family members and relatives of the deceased and missing persons as a result of the tragedy.
The Minister commented to the media and expressed his condolences to the families and relatives of those who died as a result of the tragedy in Shovi.
"First of all, I would like to express my deep sorrow to the families of the deceased. Huge tragedy took place, we found 24 deceased people. You're aware that we are still looking for 9 people. From the very first hours, the rescue service and the local police have been involved in the rescue operations. The Ministry of Defense also got involved soon following the order of the Prime Minister. All services and infrastructure are also involved, about 60 pieces of equipment are working. The rescue work is progressing. Rescuers are doing their best in this short time. Aviation was also involved in the first days. Almost 60% of the collapsed land mass has already been searched. It will probably take a few more days for the entire mass to be processed and then rescuers will switch to local works. Also the 50 km section of the river, approximately up to Ambrolauri, is being worked on and controlled." - noted Vakhtang Gomelauri.
The Minister of Internal Affairs answered the questions asked by the media.
