Fire extinguishing works are not being carried out because there is no fire, cooling operation is in progress. The more we clear the rubble, the more small fires flare up, including in the form of smoke. At the moment, we are carrying out only search and rescue operations.

As long as there is a possibility that we can find a citizen under the rubble, we do not use heavy equipment immediately. We clean the area as much as possible, clear the area, then before using heavy equipment, one of our rescuers comes to the area, observes and only then heavy equipment is used,” said the minister.

He mentioned that the identity of 6 out of 16 victims has been confirmed at the moment. Certain forensic examinations are to be carried out, and relatives are also being awaited to identify the bodies.

According to the Minister, he met with the owners of the shopping center, today, we asked them to provide certain plans from the Cadastre Committee, so that if there are places in the basement floors that are not visible to the MES employees, we will have those plans as well.

“The area in the basement has been cleared so that we can carry out more detailed search works,” he said.

Armen Pambukhchyan also mentioned that two of the pillars of the building were dismantled yesterday. “But there are two more parts: one is the main building, which we don’t want to touch yet, and there are other buildings in the back, where we found bodies. When we understand that there are no more citizens there, we will uninstall it, because it is of a certain danger.”

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Let’s remind that on 14 August, at 1:23 p.m., the National Crisis Management Center received an alert that an explosion and fire occurred in the “Surmalu” Shopping Center located at 15 Arshakunyats Street in Yerevan, as a result of which the three-story building partially collapsed.