Sydney, Dec 18 Australian officials have departed for Vanuatu to aid search and rescue efforts following a major earthquake that killed at least 14 people.
Australia's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) on Wednesday afternoon sent its first relief crews to Vanuatu on board a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster bound for Port Vila.
The government of Vanuatu earlier on Wednesday confirmed reports from the Red Cross that at least 14 people have died after the 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday.
Dickinson Tevi, Secretary-General of the Vanuatu Red Cross Society, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he expects the death toll to increase.
DART's task force leader, Douglas May, said that the relief crew, made up of firefighters, paramedics, engineers, doctors and canine search and rescue teams, expects a difficult job ahead.
"We expect as soon as we get there, we will be rescuing known live victims," he told reporters prior to departure.
"Ultimately, we know there are lives to be saved. So that is the priority, and after that it'll be helping to locate the deceased and then providing services like water purification."
More than 200 people have been injured, and rescue efforts are focused on two buildings that collapsed in the capital of Port Vila, Vanuatu Police Commissioner Robson Iavro said.
The National Disaster Management office said that of the 14 confirmed deaths, six had died in landslides, four in a collapsed building, and four at Vila Central Hospital, Xinhua news agency reported.
The ABC reported that some parts of the island nation were still without power and water as of Wednesday afternoon.
Tevi told ABC Television that the Red Cross had deployed volunteers to assist the Central hospital and to assess the extent of the damage around the island.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that around 116,000 people had been affected by the earthquake.
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