Polish medics and firefighters arrived in Katmandu

Interior Minister Teresa Piotrowska decided to send the HUSAR Polish heavy search and rescue team to Katmandu on Sunday following an earthquake in which more than 3,000 people died. Apart from that, the Polish Centre for International Aid announced that it will send a group of emergency medics for an initial ten day mission. “It’s a small group as there are availability problems at the airport in Kathmandu,” head of the Polish Centre for International Aid, Wojciech Wilk informed, “If there will be a greater need for medical help from Poland […] then we can mobilize more doctors, medical aid and rescuers”, he added. On Monday, 81 firefighters from the HUSAR group and a group of six emergency medics arrived in Katmandu after a 10 hour flight. "They will use dogs and if they find people, they will locate them precisely with a geophone, and then with a search cam. Later, they will pull them out from the rubble and provide qualified first aid. The group has two doctors and nine paramedics," said Paweł Frątczak, spokesperson for the State Fire Service.