Russia joins international aid to Pakistan

Russia stepped up its aid to Pakistan on Monday following a devastating earthquake, sending a mobile hospital and a planeload of tents, beds, blankets and other supplies, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

A plane carrying a mobile hospital, medical equipment and medicines as well as 32 medical personnel and 15 rescuers, took off from an airfield near Moscow in the late afternoon, ministry spokeswoman Maria Ardynskaya said.

An Il-76 plane that arrived in Pakistan from Moscow earlier Monday carried 190 tents with a capacity of 10-30 places, 2,300 bedding sets, 750 collapsible beds, mattresses, pillows and blankets, Ardynskaya said, according to the AP.

The two flights came a day after Russia sent a planeload of emergency workers and search dogs to Islamabad. The rescuers will be based in the badly damaged city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

T.E.