JAKARTA, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - A team of highly qualified Russian pediatricians arrived in Indonesia on Friday to provide assistance to children in West Sumatra affected by the recent earthquakes.
Six doctors from the Moscow Institute of Children's Emergency Surgery and Traumatology, who have experience of treating children affected by earthquakes across the world, are to fly from Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, to Padang in West Sumatra on Saturday morning. They will replace rescuers and psychologists from Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry, who had been working there since shortly after the disaster.
A series of powerful quakes hit Sumatra last week, killing hundreds of people. According to the local authorities' latest report, the officially confirmed death toll reaches 784, with 242 people still missing and assumed trapped under debris.
Some 180,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the disaster.
"Emergency work in dealing with the consequences of the earthquake in Sumatra has come to an end," Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Alexander Ivanov told RIA Novosti. "A new, longer stage of wound healing has begun."
He said Russia's emergency teams made a significant contribution while in Indonesia, treating up to 200 people a day in their airmobile hospital.
The majority of Russian rescuers worked in Padang, the epicenter of the earthquake, and in the nearby villages of Lupu-Alu, Pariaman and Payakumbu.
"Indonesia is grateful to Russia for its timely help," the diplomat said.
Medics from the Moscow institute also worked in Indonesia in 2006, providing medical assistance to children affected by a quake off the island of Java. About 6,000 died in the 2006 disaster, with approximately 37,000 people seriously wounded.
