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Russia deployed more than 120 rescuers, medics and sniffer dogs to Myanmar following a devastating earthquake that struck the Southeast Asian country on Friday, the Emergency Situations Ministry announced over the weekend.
The death toll from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake rose to more than 1,700 on Monday as more bodies were pulled from the rubble, the country’s military-led government, with thousands more injured and over 300 missing.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, acting on orders from President Vladimir Putin, sent two teams to assist in search and rescue operations.
Myanmar’s state broadcaster MRTV reported Sunday that two Russian planes carrying rescue workers, ambulances and equipment arrived in the capital, Naypyidaw.
On Monday, the Russian team moved to Mandalay — one of the hardest-hit cities and Myanmar’s second-largest — where a 30-person advance unit, including drone operators and dog handlers, began working in the most devastated areas.
Sergei Vorontsov, the head of Russia’s rescue team, asked local authorities to grant Russian medics access to a hospital to assess its needs, according to the state-run news agency TASS.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said Russian rescuers worked with their Chinese counterparts to pull a woman from the rubble in Mandalay on Sunday.
Myanmar’s ruling military junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun thanked key allies China, Russia and India for their assistance and said authorities were doing their best to manage the crisis.
Russia is among more than a dozen countries, including the United States, that sent aid after junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made a rare appeal for international assistance.
AFP contributed reporting.
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