Czechia sending firefighters to Turkey after devastating earthquake

Czechia is sending firefighters to Turkey which was hit by a strong earthquake in the night hours, with hundreds of casualties. A 68-strong specially trained rescue team including sniffer dogs, a structural engeneer and a doctor, headed for Turkey on Monday after the country accepted an offer of help. The Urban Search and Rescue Team is made up of firefighters from Prague and Moravia-Silesia. It has helped abroad on previous occasions, for example, in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2020 after an explosion in the port that killed two hundred people and injured 6,000 others.

It was confirmed that a group of Czechs was in one of the Turkish provinces hit by the earthquake. According to the Czech Foreign Ministry, they are safe and the Czech Embassy in Ankara is in contact with them.