Msian Medical Team Leaves Today For Quake-hit Yogyakarta

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will send a medical team of 76 armed forces personnel to help victims of last Saturday's earthquake in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Tuesday.
He said the team, comprising eight officers and 68 other ranks, would leave with medical supplies in four Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) aircraft at 4 pm from the RMAF base in Subang.
"We realise that the number of victims is huge and there is a great need for medicines as the local hospitals there are unable to cope with the large number of quake victims," he told reporters after presenting armed forces veteran entrepreneurs awards and launching a book, "Pahlawan Tanahair", here.
The quake, of 6.2 intensity on the Richter scale, has taken the lives of more than 5,000 people and left up to 200,000 homeless.
Najib gave the breakdown of the medical personnel as one anesthesiologist, three medical officers, two dental officers, 40 paramedics and several support staff.
He also said that Malaysia would establish a field hospital and a mobile hospital in Yogyakarta.
"We will also send two ambulances and a landrover," he added.
The medical team is headed by Col Dr S. Jegathesan.
On Malaysian students remaining in Yogyakarta, Najib said students who wanted to return to Malaysia could do so in the RMAF aircraft that sent supplies there.