A number of dangerous animals are believed to still be on the loose in Georgia's capital after flash floods wrecked the Tbilisi zoo and killed at least 12 people.
Rain turned the Vere river, which flows through the capital Tbilisi, into a torrent that swept away dozens of buildings and cars.
Three zoo workers were among the dead and 24 other people are still unaccounted for, according to officials.
Several animals which escaped from the zoo as some enclosures were submerged and others hit by mudslides have been killed or recaptured.
An escaped hippopotamus was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquiliser gun.
The corpse of a lion and a pony were seen lying on a road close to the zoo, an AFP correspondent reported.
But zoo officials warned they were still trying to establish the whereabouts of a number of lions and tigers, among other animals.
Animals from the city's zoo, including tigers, lions, bears and wolves, escaped from cages damaged by the rainfall.
"We do not know the exact number of how many tigers and lions have drowned, how many were killed and how many are on the loose," Khatia Basilashvili said.
"With regard to four tigers we do not know, but we know that we have found four dead lions we think that three more lions are somewhere in the territory."
Residents are being told to stay inside as zoo workers try to locate them, with helicopters circling the city of around 1.1 million people.
A hotline has been set up for residents to tell the emergency services if they spot any of the animals.
Damages
Dozens of families have been left without shelter and thousands have no water or electricity.
A preliminary estimate has put the damages at $10m (€8.9m), according to Irakly Lekvinadze, vice mayor of Tbilisi.
Several of the city's main roads have been completely destroyed.
President Giorgi Margvelashvili has sent his condolences to the families of the victims.
He told local television during a visit to observe the clean-up operation: "The human losses that we have suffered are very hard to tolerate. I express my condolences to all the people who lost their relatives."
None of the fatalities were believed to have been caused by the escaped animals.
The zoo said one of those who died was Guliko Chitadze, a zookeeper who lost an arm in an attack by a tiger last month.
The Interfax news agency reported that her husband also died in the flooding.
The head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Ilia II, was quoted by Interfax as telling a mass that Georgia's former Communist rulers could be seen as being involved in the disaster.
He said: "When Communists came to us in this country, they ordered that all crosses and bells of the churches be melted down and the money used to build the zoo," he said.
"The sin will not go without punishment. I am very sorry that Georgians fell so that a zoo was built at the expense of destroyed churches."