Sylvie Claire / October 9, 2021
A building partially collapsed Friday in the Georgia resort town of Batumi, and up to 15 people may be under the rubble, Georgia police said in a statement.
About five floors of the building collapsed in the middle of the day, crushing several cars parked in front of it, the statement said.
According to our information, between 10 and 15 people may be trapped under the rubble, said police, noting that at least two of them were alive and communicating with rescue workers by phone.
Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to the scene, and the Minister of Interior, Vakhtang Gomelaouri, went there, according to the same source.
We are doing everything we can to find the survivors, he said, quoted in the statement, during a press briefing in front of the building.
The Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili, also went to Batumi, according to a Georgian government statement.
The reasons for the collapse were not immediately known. An investigation was opened, according to the Georgian police.