On the evening of 3 August 2023, a landslide hit the resort area of Shovi in the mountains of the south Caucasian country of Georgia.
The area is a popular holiday and mountaineering destination located in the Racha region, near the Russian border, about 140 kilometres north-west of the capital city Tbilisi. 17 casualties were reported along with a further 18 missing. This comes after 150 rescuers were not able to reach the site until after nightfall. Helicopters were deployed on 3 and 4 August to evacuate over 200 people from Racha.
Two bridges were destroyed and roads covered with mud and debris. Restoration work began shortly after the landslide hit. A geologist estimated that the region was buried under around 5 million cubic metres of mud.
Officials stated that the landslide was triggered by heavy rainfall combined with recent severe erosion. This was the first landslide to occur in the region and the most devastating natural disaster to occur in north-west Georgia since the 1991 earthquake.
