International Rescue Teams Head to Indonesia

After Wednesday's earthquake U.K. search and rescue experts are getting ready to fly to Indonesia to offer help.

Photo: International Rescue Teams Head to Indonesia

The Department for International Development team was due to depart from London overnight but has been delayed by technical problems.

The plane to the city of Padang will carry UK aid agency staff and rescue equipment including plastic sheeting, medical and water purifying equipment.

A tsunami in the South Pacific on Tuesday has also prompted UK agencies to prepare aid efforts, BBC News reports.

It was also reported, Experts from the UK, Australia and South Korea were en route to Sumatra, hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake two days ago. Others pledged emergency cash.

More than 1,000 people are already known to have died, the UN says. Thousands are supposed to remain trapped.

But one survivor was found on Friday: a young woman pulled, barely conscious, from within a collapsed school.

The rescue of Ratna Kurnia Sari was a boost to emergency workers in Padang, who were enduring tough conditions as they scrambled to reach survivors.

At least one other young woman was reported to remain trapped close to where the first rescue took place.

As many as 3,000 people were still thought to be trapped under rubble in Padang and several other areas, Indonesia's disaster management agency told the Associated Press.

Overnight, workers rigged up floodlights and brought in a giant excavator as they tried to find students trapped beneath the collapsed three-storey school, BBC News reports.

In the meantime, Indonesian airlines provide free flights for those who want to fly or deliver humanitarian aid cargo from Jakarta to the earthquake-stricken areas of Padang, West Sumatra on Sunday, the airlines officials said here on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta-based Batavia Air provides free cargo for humanitarian aid in Padang.

The national flag-carrier airline, Garuda Indonesia, provides a50-percent cargo delivery discount to fly to Padang in two months, from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, Xinhua reports.