Two bodies have been recovered and about 50 individuals, including children, evacuated after landslides and flood hit the Guria and Adjara regions in Georgia's west on Thursday and early on Friday, the Georgian Interior Ministry confirmed on Friday.
One body belonged to an elderly woman, while another to a minor, and one minor still remained missing, the body added.
Temur Mgebrishvili, the head of the Emergency Management Service, on Friday said 200 employees from his agency had been present in the disaster zone, along with the representatives of different units from the country’s Interior Ministry, with heavy hardware being involved in search and cleaning efforts.
He noted his body had received more than 400 notifications from the disaster zone from both regions, which he claimed were being rechecked and responded to.
Mgebrishvili stressed heavy, off-road hardware had been ensured to reach the localities particularly affected by landslides and help the communities stranded in particular villages, adding there was no need to use a helicopter.
Houses have been flooded or swept away, while bridges, roads and other infrastructure were “severely damaged” in the affected municipalities, the official said.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the visiting EU High Commissioner Josep Borrell extended their condolences to the families of those killed in the disaster earlier during the day.