20 missing in Tbilisi floods, zoo tigers still on loose
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Twenty people were missing yesterday after devastating floods killed more than a dozen people in Georgia, with escaped zoo animals — including two tigers — still on the loose.
The death toll from the worst floods to hit the capital Tbilisi in decades climbed to 13 after rescuers found an elderly man in the rubble of a gutted house, a government spokeswoman Manana Tokmajishvili said.
As many as 300 zoo animals also perished.
Twenty people were missing as of yesterday afternoon, she added.
The small Vere River running through the city of 1.2 million burst its banks early on Sunday after hours of torrential rain, paralyzing Tbilisi and wrecking the city’s zoo.
Many birds and animals, including monkeys and penguins, drowned in the muddy waters, but lions, tigers and even a hippopotamus escaped and were either recaptured or shot dead by police.
Two tigers, a bear and a jackal were still at large, however.
In an emotional show of solidarity after the disaster, hundreds of Tbilisi residents volunteered to join a clean-up operation across the city. “What happened was an apocalypse,” actor Giorgi Nakashidze said as he helped National Guard soldiers clear mud and fallen trees from the streets.
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