At least 11 people have died and 25 are still missing after a landslide hit Georgia’s western resort town of Shovi on Thursday.

Witnesses reported hearing a “strident” sound at noon, followed by thick mud sweeping away vehicles, bridges, roads, and cottages.

210 people have already been relocated to a safe location, including summer camp pupils from Rustavi school. Rescue efforts and road cleaning/restoration works have been ongoing.

“Similar events occur not only in Georgia but worldwide due to global warming,” says Irakli Megrelidze, Deputy Head of the Hydrometeorological Service of Georgia at the National Environmental Agency, noting that “Climate change and global warming trigger such processes.”

Despite having landslide monitoring systems installed in the Racha-Lechkhumi-Kvemo Svaneti area, “it is practically impossible to predict rapidly developing processes of such a scale,” according to Giorgi Gaprindashvili, Head of the Department of Natural Processes, Engineering-Geology, and Hydrogeology, pointing out that the natural catastrophe itself was a complicated geological and hydrological process.

Two Border Police helicopters, 400 rescuers, firefighters, patrol police units, and volunteers have all been working on the rescue effort since Thursday. According to one of the volunteers, Vakho Abaishvili, the heavy mud makes it difficult for them to move around the disaster site.

As locals worry about the recurrence of the landslide, Maia Bitadze, chair of Georgia’s Parliamentary Environment Protection Committee, stressed that “there is no danger of it.” She also linked the disaster to climate change saying “Nature has changed and we have to adapt to it.”

Georgian politicians and the nation’s international partners have been expressing their solidarity and extended condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, who arrived at the disaster-stricken area, declared Monday, August 7, as the official Day of Mourning.

With the launch of a round-the-clock hotline, the country’s Interior Ministry encourages the public to report any missing persons by calling this number: 598 913 089.

Shovi, a popular balneological-climatic resort surrounded by coniferous and deciduous forests, is placed in Oni municipality, 1520 meters above sea level.