Caracas: A Venezuelan rescue mission arrived at the Gaziantep airport in southern Turkey to help with disaster relief efforts following the earthquakes four days ago, Venezuelan authorities confirmed.
The Venezuelan mission, including specialists in earthquake recovery and rescue dogs, will concentrate its operations in the Besni district of the city of Adiyaman, Venezuela’s Ministry of Interior, Justice and Peace said through Twitter on Thursday.
“More than 50 professionals, technicians, doctors, and specialists in disaster care, identification and search for people, and all their technical equipment” have been deployed in Turkey and Syria, the Ministry said.
Prior to landing in Turkey, the plane operated by state airline Conviasa made a stopover in Syria, where the first contingent of firefighters and rescue workers disembarked to aid the disaster relief efforts there, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Venezuelan rescuers are members of the country’s Simon Bolivar Humanitarian Task Force, specialised in disaster management.
Two strong earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday.
–IANS