One dead, four injured in explosion from suspected gas leak in Tbilisi residential building

One person died and four were injured in an explosion from a suspected gas leak in a residential building in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi on the night between Monday and Tuesday, with Mikheil Sarjveladze, the Minister of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs on Tuesday said the injured residents had been hospitalised.

Sarjveladze noted the condition of one of the injured was critical.

We will probably be able to say the exact reasons after the investigation. Most likely, we are talking about a gas leak or a network malfunction, which caused the explosion and the tragedy”, he said.

Tbilisi City Hall on Tuesday said the families affected by the explosion, which caused a wall and a facade of the building to collapse, had been accommodated in various hotels by the Krtsanisi District Administration. The residential building where the explosion occurred housed around a hundred displaced families.

The City Hall added the Tbilisi Municipal Laboratory had begun assessing the building’s stability, adding residents would be allowed to return to their flats once the Laboratory confirmed the block’s safety.