Snowboarder Nugzar Diakonashvili dies under avalanche in Georgia

The Georgian police have reported the death of snowboarder Nugzar Diakonashvili. According to the law enforcers, he was hit by an avalanche in Bakuriani.

The date of the snowboarder's death was not reported. On January 5, the message about the tragedy in the mountains was published on the website of the Georgian police. The incident occurred in the area of "Mountain Kokhta" and "Didveli".

Nugzar Diakonashvili was hit by an avalanche descended from the mountain and died at the place. When the avalanche descended, Nugzar Diakonashvili was skiing, the website "InterPressNews" reports.

Nugzar Diakonashvili was the leader of the Bakuriani group of the Federation of Snowboarding. In 2015, he became the champion of Georgia in Snowboard Cross. Nugzar Diakonashvili was training to take part in the Winter Olympics 2018, the "Georgia Online" reports.

Till present, the cause of the avalanche in the mountains has not been reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 5, an earthquake was recorded with the epicentre near the Georgian town of Tsalka. According to the "Yandex Maps", Bakuriani is located about 55 km from the town of Tsalka. It was also reported that on January 4, the traffic was closed on the section Gudauri-Kobi of the road Mtskheta-Stepantsminda-Lars because of the blizzard and avalanche danger.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.