The rescue operation in Turkey was useful both for officers and for Lithuania, as a country, Gediminas Šukšta who led the Lithuanian international assistance team, told reporters after the team's return to Vilnius on Thursday night.
"We are coming back much stronger and our training was not in vain. [...] I am glad that Lithuania's [help] was seen [by the people in Turkey], and I think that this mission is beneficial both for us as specialists and for Lithuania as a country," Šukšta told reporters at Vilnius Airport.
Since the rescue operation in Turkey is giving way to a humanitarian one, the assistance of Lithuanian rescue specialists is no longer needed.
During the operation, the Lithuanian team scouted the sites of seven collapsed buildings in the town of Adıyaman and recovered the bodies of seven victims. Regular underground tremors were felt at the site of the search and rescue operation, the Fire and Rescue Department said.
The Lithuanian rescue team was made up of 42 people, which included three cynologists, five medics and 34 firefighters from Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys counties
.
It was the first time that Lithuania has sent an international rescue team to Turkey.
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