Pashinyan expresses condolences over Batumi building collapse

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, October 9 sent a letter of condolences to his Georgian counterpart Irakli Garibashvili, one day after a residential building partially collapsed in the Black Sea city of Batumi, leaving an unidentified number of people trapped under the debris.

"Please accept my deepest condolences on the tragic incident that claimed human lives in Batumi. Please convey my words of consolation and endurance to the families and loved ones of all the victims," Pashinyan said.

Five people were killed and several injured after the seven-story building collapsed in the seaside city, the country’s police chief said.

“We are looking for the others, possible no more than 10 people were trapped under the rubble,” Vakhtang Gomelauri, the Minister of Internal Affairs and the country’s head of the police, told reporters in a televised briefing on Saturday. The victims were residents of the building and the dead include two children.