Singapore sends 44-member search-and-rescue team in Pakistan

Singapore will send a 44-member search-and-rescue team and relief supplies to quake-hit Pakistan, officials said Monday.

The wealthy city-state's elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team was set to depart Monday, said Lieutenant-Colonel N. Subhas, a spokesman for the Singapore Civil Defense Force.

Separately, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a statement that Singapore would also be "making a donation, and sending medical and relief supplies for the victims of this catastrophe."

The statement did not mention the amount of the donation.

The United Nations has warned that over 2.5 million people need shelter after Saturday's magnitude-7.6 quake, which devastated parts of Pakistan and India. Death toll figures ranged from 20,000 to above 30,000, and were expected to rise.

Pakistan appears to have suffered the worst of the disaster. Singapore's Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team was also sent to Indonesia's Nias island, near Sumatra, after a magnitude-8.7 quake struck the remote area in late March, reports the AP. I.L.