Fifty-three Civil Protection, INEM, GNR and Firefighters, accompanied by six search dogs, are part of the Portuguese mission that plans to leave for Turkey on Wednesday to support the search and rescue work after the earthquake on Monday, which already it has caused more than five thousand deaths.
“Yesterday at the end of the day, Civil Protection, in conjunction with the European emergency response coordination mechanism, decided on the necessary means to support this search and rescue operation in these tragic circumstances that the Turkish and Syrian people are experiencing. In the next few hours, a team of 53 elements from Civil Protection, GNR and also from Medical Emergencies will leave our country to join the European humanitarian efforts in the field of Civil Protection and, in particular, in the case of Portuguese support, search and rescue. “, advanced the Minister of the Interior Administration, José Luís Carneiro, in statements to journalists, in Coimbra.
Speaking to journalists on the same occasion, the president of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, Duarte da Costa, explained that it is a joint force with elements of the structure of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, elements of the GNR UEPS, units of the Firefighters Sapper Regiment and a medical intervention team from the INEM for the safety of the body itself.
“We plan to leave tomorrow during the day. In partnership with the European Mechanism, the methodologies that are necessary to place the force in Turkey have already been found, along with other European efforts and other European forces that are currently being prepared,” she said. explained.
The mission is expected to last 10 to 15 days, but it could be extended, depending on what the team finds on the ground and on Portuguese foreign policy, the official added.
Duarte da Costa said that the exact place where the Portuguese team will play is not yet known, but he explained that the details are being refined with the Turkish authorities.
In addition to the 53 elements, Portugal will also send search and rescue equipment, but not heavy equipment.
The ANEPC president also mentioned that a team of 150 operatives is prepared to leave for Chile to help fight the fires in the country and stressed that it will be “an unprecedented situation” for Portugal to have two forces deployed outside the national territory.
The provisional balance of the earthquakes that occurred this Monday in Turkey and Syria rises to more than five thousand deaths, while rescue operations are carried out among the rubble of destroyed buildings in both countries.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said Tuesday that the death toll on Turkish soil had risen to 3,419 and 20,534 people had been injured.
The latest information provided by the Turkish vice president brings the number of fatalities in the two countries together to 5,021, since Syria confirmed this Wednesday the death of 1,602 people.
The quakes, the largest measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, toppled thousands of buildings in southern Turkey and northern Syria.
The rescue teams remain in the affected places, whose work is hampered by the low temperatures recorded in the region.
Source: TSF
