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29 March 2024

Georgia sets up shelters after cold kills homeless

Published
By AFP

Georgia set up shelters for homeless people in the capital Tbilisi on Monday after two homeless people died during the coldest weather for decades.

"The situation is very serious as far as homeless people are concerned," Tbilisi Mayor Gigi Ugulava said in a statement after visiting a hospital where a further three homeless men were reported to be in intensive care.

Ugulava said that municipally-funded canteens which provide free food to the poor would be turned into temporary shelters.

"In every district of Tbilisi, one free canteen will be transformed into a shelter so that no one remains without shelter and a basic hot dinner during the cold weather," he said.

Two homeless men died on Friday after being admitted to hospital with hypothermia, one in the capital and the other in the western town of Ozurgeti, local media reported.

Temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) in Tbilisi on Sunday -- the lowest recorded in the capital for 40 years, according to local media.