Georgian govt sets up crisis center to deal with devastating landslide
TBILISI. May 17 (Interfax) - The Georgian government has set up a crisis center to deal with the consequences of a landslide in the Dariali Gorge on Saturday, which blocked the Terek River's streambed and posed a threat to the people living in the adjacent populated areas.
"At the Georgian prime minister's instruction, an emergency headquarters has been set up, whose work will be coordinated by the Security and Crisis Management Council," Levan Girsiashvili, a council member, said at a news conference at the Georgian government secretariat on Saturday.
All government bodies, including emergency and rescue services, have been mobilized to deal with the disaster, he said.
"The interior, regional development and infrastructure, and energy ministers have headed for the disaster area," Girsiashvili said, adding that Prime Minister Irakly Garibashvili would also travel there within hours to receive first-hand information on the accident.
"The people from the gorge and the adjacent territory have already been evacuated. All the necessary emergency measures are being taken, and therefore there are no grounds for panic," he said.
The reports on the number of casualties "have not been confirmed as yet," he said.
It was reported earlier with reference to Georgian media that a landslide in the Dariali Gorge had killed at least three Turkish workers employed in the construction of a hydropower plant and blocked an entrance to a tunnel, where people could have possibly been trapped. The landslide also damaged a trunk gas pipeline running from Russia to Armenia across Georgia, thus disrupting gas supply through it.