Deaths reach 31 after Shovi landslide, two still missing

The Georgian rescuers on Thursday recovered two bodies in the disaster zone following the August 3 deadly landslide in the Oni municipality resort, in the country’s west,  with the total number of deaths reaching 31. 

Two individuals are still missing, the Georgian Emergency Management Service said, adding one was a man’s body, while another belonged to an adult. 

A fragment of one individual has also been found, the body added. 

The landslide hit the resort in the country’s Racha region at about 15:00, with the helicopters of the Interior Ministry appearing at the site to evacuate survivors and search those missing in about three hours. 

Part of the public and the opposition are accusing the authorities of “delayed and ineffective” response to the disaster, the absence of rescue planes and early warning systems. 

For its part, the Government calls the allegations “politically grounded” and claims the disaster had been “unpreventable”, challenging the position of several survivors, who claim they had been stranded in mud for hours and would have escaped if had been warned 5-10 minutes earlier.