Seven die in Tbilisi apartment gas leak

Seven people have died in a carbon monoxide gas leak in a Tbilisi apartment located on Ketevan Tsamebuli Avenue.

All seven of the victims were men working at the construction site of a branch of Liberty Bank.

Residents of the building say the men rented a one-room apartment with a makeshift water heater which malfunctioned.

The workers were discovered dead only after their foreman came to their apartment to find out why they had not appeared for their shifts.

KazTransGaz, largely responsible for gas provision in Tbilisi, claims that the company recently dismantled the makeshift heater in the apartment during a scheduled inspection and turned off its connection to the building’s gas system, but that the apartment owner supposedly reconnected it. The heater also had an open combustion chamber, the company says.

Police are conducting an investigation into “violating the safety rules of the placement, design…of thermal gas equipment…resulting in the death of two or more people”, a crime which is punishable by six to 10 years of imprisonment.