A contingent of 80 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel and specialised search dogs was dispatched to Sri Lanka on Saturday to help in rescue and relief efforts after Cyclone Ditwah wreaked havoc on the island nation.
Unprecedented floods have killed nearly 100 people in the neighbouring country so far, officials said, as the cyclone continued to batter coastal areas in southern India too.
The NDRF personnel have been divided into two teams, along with four rescue dogs, who took off onboard an IL-76 IAF aircraft from the Hindon airbase near Delhi for Colombo around 4 am on Saturday, an official spokesperson said.
The deployment is part of Operation Sagar Bandhu launched by India to help its southern neighbour.
The teams are armed with inflatable boats, hydraulic cutting and breaching tools, communication equipment, first-aid kits and other essential rescue supplies to support search, rescue, and relief operations in cyclone-affected regions of Sri Lanka, the spokesperson added.
Also Read: Cyclone Ditwah: Schools, colleges closed as rains intensify in TN
The cyclone, which picked pace over the Bay of Bengal, has caused floods and landslides that left a trail of destruction and damaged infrastructure.
In India, the federal contingency force has deployed 14 teams across vulnerable coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, including Villupuram, Chengalpattu, Tiruvallur, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai and Mayiladuthurai, in the wake of the cyclone.
Additional teams have been earmarked for Puducherry while 10 teams are en route Chennai from NDRF bases in Pune in Maharashtra and Vadodara in Gujarat, the spokesperson said.
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