The internal affairs ministry announced on Tuesday that the death toll from a landslide at a tourist town in northwest Georgia has increased to 26.
The area around Shovi, a small resort in the Caucasus nation’s northwest known for its wide forests and mineral water springs, is still being searched for the seven persons left unaccounted for after the landslide that occurred on August 3.
“The total number of dead is 26, and rescuers are looking for seven more,” the emergency service of the internal affairs ministry said.
16 people were reported deceased according to an earlier toll released on August 5.
Rescuers were manning excavators to transfer dried, shifted soil, as seen in ministry images.
According to a post from the ministry on Facebook, teams are looking both at the disaster’s epicenter and in neighboring riverbeds.
Shovi is located at the junction of two rivers, 140 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
In Georgia, where there is a chance of landslides due to the steep slopes, heavy rainfall and flooding are very typical.
