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Aussie navy sends warship to assist earthquake victims

Australia yesterday sent a warship carrying a full medical team to help rescue and recovery efforts in Indonesia after a massive quake hit Sumatra.

The Royal Australian Navy’s amphibious landing ship HMAS Kanimbla sailed out of Sydney to join the emergency response aimed at rescuing the injured and recovering the dead.

SUPPORT

“Kanimbla is ready to come to the aid of Indonesia with our surgical and health facilities and the Sea King helicopters that offer the best deployable support in the Royal Australian Navy,” commanding officer Tim Byles said.

“We’re yet to be told by the Indonesian government and the Australian government what exactly we need to do, so what we’re doing is positioning the ship to be in the best spot to get up there in a timely fashion,” he said.

The ship, headed for Padang, will take at least 10 days to reach Indonesia as it will conduct port calls to pick up more personnel, engineering equipment and humanitarian aid, the navy said

The first round of Australia’s aid to earthquake-ravaged West Sumatra arrived on Friday when a plane carrying Australian aid personnel and relief supplies touched down in Padang, the provincial capital.

Supplies include medical kits, blankets and tents for the tens of thousands of Indonesians affected by the quake.

A 36-person urban search and rescue team and about 20 Australian Defence Force medics and engineers were expected to arrive in Padang yesterday.

MISSING

Meanwhile, the government revised downward the number of Australians still unaccounted for after the Indonesian quake to 40 after at least 13 were found safe and sound.

Earlier the government had put the figure at 60.

“The good news is the Australians who we knew were in the Padang area at the time of the earthquake have now all been accounted for,” Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.
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