Two Die in Collapse of TV Studio

Two employees of the Rustavi 2 TV died after large part of the building housing the television station’s Star Academy studio collapsed at dawn on April 26.

The five-story building, belonging to the Rustavi 2 (the company’s headquarters in located in a separate building), collapsed for yet unknown reasons at about 5am local time.

Total of 14 people were in the building at the time of collapse, including participants of Star Academy song contest TV show. All of them escaped the collapse without serious injuries as the bedrooms where they were at that time were not in the part of the building, which went down. A producer of the show and another employee, who were recovered by rescuers from the ruins, where hospitalized.

Dead bodies of Giorgi Gabunia and Nika Gelashvili, who were from the TV series’ editing team, were recovered from the ruins on Sunday evening.

Rustavi 2 TV said that investigation was ongoing to find out what had caused the collapse. Some renovation works were underway inside the building, but no major construction was underway, according to the reports.

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