Police reported 12 people were discovered dead at a ski resort in Georgia, a former Soviet nation.
The deaths of 11 Indian nationals and one Georgian citizen were found on the second story above an Indian restaurant in Gudauri, the country’s biggest ski resort, local police said in a statement on Saturday.
According to the statement, all 12 of the victims who were discovered dead worked in the same building.
The Indian Embassy in Tbilisi said that it was “committed to providing all possible support” to the grieving families and was attempting to return the corpses of the 11 Indian citizens.
Preliminary examinations revealed no signs of violence on the remains, police said, adding that a power generator had been installed inside, near the beds, and switched on after the electricity went out on Friday.
Police have initiated an inquiry into the event under Article 116 of the country’s penal code, which indicates negligent manslaughter.
Gudauri, located high in the Caucasus Mountains near the Russian border, is becoming more popular among visitors as a less expensive alternative to Europe’s principal resorts in the Alps. According to a local consulting group, the Gudauri resort had over 300,000 foreign visitors in 2023.
The resort’s parking lot is 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) above the peaks of numerous Alps slopes. Gudauri has 56 kilometers (35 miles) of skiable terrain, including a high of 10,750 feet (3,277 meters).
The resort is just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the city, Tbilisi, which has been rocked by demonstrations for weeks after the decision by the increasingly dictatorial government to cease discussions to join the European Union. The protesters were greeted with a harsh police crackdown.
On Saturday, Georgian parliament elected Mikheil Kavelashvili, a far-right former soccer star, as the country’s next president, escalating tensions between the Kremlin-friendly administration and the pro-West opposition.
