Azerbaijan sends 20 military medics to Turkey, to deploy field hospital for those injured in quake

BAKU. Feb 7 (Interfax) - The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has reported the dispatch of a group of military doctors to Turkey to treat those injured in the earthquake there.

"By the order of Azerbaijani President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, a group of Azerbaijani army medical personnel has been sent to Turkey. It consists of 20 people and will help those injured in the earthquake in Turkey," the country's Defense Ministry said.

Azerbaijan's Emergency Situations Ministry, for its part, said that an Adana-bound plane carrying Azerbaijani doctors and a mobile field hospital took off from Baku on Tuesday morning as part of efforts to provide assistance to people injured in the quake.

The plane will deliver a mobile field hospital and 41 professional medical and non-medical personnel, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

"Another plane that will deliver tents, bedclothes, heaters and other equipment for those affected is due to take off from Baku in the coming hours," it said.

The powerful earthquake that hit southern Turkey in the early hours of Monday and subsequent aftershocks caused deaths and injuries and large-scale damage in several Turkish provinces and in neighboring Syria.

Preliminary data put the death toll from the devastating quake in Turkey at 3,381 and the number of injured people at over 20,400.