China has swiftly sent one of its most-skilled and best-equipped rescue teams to Myanmar after a powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck the country on Friday.
In the wake of Myanmar's devastating earthquake, the China International Search and Rescue Team (CISAR), a U.N.-certificated professional unit, arrived in the Southeast Asian country late Sunday and immediately headed to multiple quake-hit areas to assist in the search and rescue of possible survivors.
The 118-member team, comprising earthquake experts, structural engineers, search and rescue workers, medical personnel, and canine units, touched down at around 23:20 local time at a military airport in Nay Pyi Taw, the capital of Myanmar, aboard two Y-20 heavy transport aircraft. They are taking with them trained sniffer dogs, life detectors, demolition equipment, and field hospital systems capable of supporting intensive 72-hour rescue operations in two separate regions simultaneously.
The team sent an advance group for rescue mission at two sites in the capital Nay Pyi Taw to help locate the missing before heading to the earthquake-stricken Mandalay in the early hours of Monday for more extensive operations.
Established in 2001, the CISAR is a United Nations-certified heavy-duty rescue team that has participated in over 20 international missions including those in the wake of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and earthquakes in Pakistan and Nepal.
According to Myanmar's State Administration Council on Sunday, about 1,700 people died, 3,400 were injured, and 300 remained missing in the earthquake that hit the country on Friday.
China's int'l rescue team heads to Mandalay after rescue mission in Myanmar's capital
