Germany earmarks 1.5m euros in immediate aid for Haiti quake victims
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Berlin, Jan 13, IRNA -- Germany has allocated 1.5 million euros in immediate aid for Haitian earthquake victims, a foreign ministry spokesman told journalists in Berlin on Wednesday.
A four-member team from the national civil defense organization, the THW, was scheduled to leave Germany for the quake-hit region later in the day.
The foreign ministry has also set up a crisis team in Berlin to coordinate the German relief activities.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle updated Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet on the overall situation, according to German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm.
Merkel has expressed her "major sadness" over the devastating quake in Haiti, offering her deep sympathies to the victims' families, he added.
She branded the scope of the catastrophe "shocking," Wilhelm said.
In other related news, the European Union's executive on Wednesday sent three million euros in aid to earthquake-stricken Haiti, with more funding expected in the coming days.
One EU expert is already on the way to the island from the neighbouring Dominican Republic to try and see how else Europe can help the quake victims, with six more expected to fly out within hours, European Commission officials were quoted saying.
Hundreds of people were feared dead Wednesday in Haiti after a major earthquake struck the poor Caribbean county.
The 7.0 magnitude quake is thought to be the worst in two hundred years.
The capital Port-au-Prince, home to more than 1.2 million people was especially hit hard. But, with the city in darkness, the casualty toll and extent of damage were difficult to determine.
Many survivors were still believed to be trapped in the rubble.
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End News / IRNA / News Code 895831
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