Twenty people were missing Monday 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 destroyed house, government spokeswoman Manana Tokmajishvili said.
As many as 300 zoo animals also perished.
Twenty people were missing as of Monday afternoon, Tokmajishvili added, with the death toll expected to rise further.
The small Vere River running through the city of 1.2 million burst its banks early Sunday after hours of torrential rain, paralysing 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.
Survivor Bela Gvelesiani, whose house was destroyed by the flood, told AFP that “everything happened in just two minutes.
“I looked through the window and saw that the river was in my courtyard. I can’t remember how we managed to get out. At first the water reached our ankles and in a split second we were up to our necks.”
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