Twelve people found dead at Georgia ski resort

Twelve people have been found dead at a ski resort in the former Soviet country of Georgia, police said.

The bodies of 11 Indian nationals and one Georgian citizen were discovered on the second floor above an Indian restaurant in Gudauri, the largest ski resort in the country, local police said in a statement issued Saturday.

The 12 people all worked in the building where their bodies were found, the statement added.

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The Indian Embassy in Tbilisi said it was "committed to providing all possible support" to the bereaved families and that it was working to repatriate the bodies of the 11 Indian nationals.

Preliminary tests found no traces of violence on the bodies, police said, adding that a power generator had been placed indoors, near the bedrooms, and turned on after the power supply went down on Friday.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident under Article 116 of the country's criminal code, suggesting negligent manslaughter.

Gudauri, lodged high up in the Caucasus Mountains close to the border with Russia, is becoming increasingly popular with tourists, offering a cheaper alternative to Europe's main resorts in the Alps.

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More than 300,000 international travellers visited the Gudauri resort in 2023, according to a local consulting firm.

The resort's parking lot sits at 2,195 metres – higher than the tops of many slopes in the Alps. Gudauri offers 56 kilometres of skiable terrain, climbing to a peak of 3,277 metres.

The resort is around 120 kilometres from the capital, Tbilisi, which has for weeks been wracked by protests following the decision by the increasingly autocratic government to halt talks to join the European Union.

The protests have been met by a brutal police response.

On Saturday, Georgian lawmakers voted in Mikheil Kavelashvili, a far-right former soccer star, as the country's next president, deepening tensions between the Kremlin-friendly government and pro-Western opposition.

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