India on Saturday sent a military heavy lift aircraft with more than 35 tonnes of relief materials to quake-hit Turkey and Syria, continuing its efforts to help victims of the earthquake that killed more than 24,500 people.
The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) headed to the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday evening. After offloading relief materials there, the aircraft will fly on to Adana, officials said.
This was the seventh flight that ferried equipment and relief materials from India to the two countries affected by the February 6 earthquake.
Officials said the C-17 carried 23 tonnes of relief materials for Syria and around 12 tonnes for Turkey. The assistance sent for Syria included sleeping mats, generator sets, solar lamps, tarpaulins, blankets, emergency and critical care medicines, and disaster relief consumables.
The material headed for Turkey included supplies for an army field hospital and the search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). The aircraft carried medical equipment such as an ECG machine, patient monitor, anaesthesia machine, syringe pumps, glucometer, blankets and other relief materials.
A 99-member team from the Indian Army has established a 30-bed field hospital at Iskenderun in the Hatay province of Turkey that has already treated hundreds of people.
The team at the field hospital includes medical and critical care specialists and surgeons. It is equipped with an operation theatre, X-ray machines and ventilators.
