Two persons detained in Georgia in connection with residential house explosion

The Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has detained two persons, who had conducted an inspection in the Tbilisi high-rise residential building on the eve of the explosion, the MIA has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 16, an explosion in a nine-storey building in the outskirt of Tbilisi killed four people, including a child, who died in hospital. As of January 17, a child and two adults were still in hospitals. The condition of the four-year-old girl is rated as of moderate gravity.

The Georgia's MIA has detained the two men from the rapid response service who had inspected the house shortly before the explosion, the MIA has reported today.

According to investigators, several hours before the explosion, tenants of the house called the hotline of the "Kaztransgaz" gas distribution company and asked for help, since they felt a strong smell of gas in the building, and they had a suspicion of gas leakage. The experts, who came to the venue, as investigators believe, failed to make a proper check and explained to tenants that it was a smell of paint, not gas. "After the departure of the experts, an explosion occurred," the Georgia's MIA says in the statement sent to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 18, 2019 at 03:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.