Bangkok welcomes home Thailand USAR team members after Turkey mission
Bangkok welcomed back its members of Thailand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team on Monday after they returned from their mission searching for earthquake victims in Turkey.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Council (BMC) held a ceremony to present honorary certificates to 10 members of Bangkok’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department who joined the search mission in Turkey from February 9-18.
Also receiving the certificates were Susan Redmond and Andrew Redmond from the Thailand Rescue Dog Association.
Thailand sent a 42-member team comprising USAR Thailand staff, medics and engineers, and two sniffer dogs – Sierra and Sahara – to search for victims of the earthquake that rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6.
The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude quake and aftershocks rose above 47,000 on Tuesday.
BMC president Wirat Minchainant on Monday thanked the “Thailand for Turkiye” team for their efforts in this operation, which succeeded in retrieving 25 bodies of victims in Antakya, Turkey.
He said the BMC has also dispatched a letter of condolence to the mayor of Istanbul, to express moral support from Thai people to the people of Turkey during this time of hardship.
The BMC and Istanbul Municipality established official relations on July 6, 2009 to cement their sister-cities relationship.
