PM: Malaysia to send search and rescue team to Japan (Updated)

KUANTAN: Malaysia will send a 15-member search and rescue team, with medical officers and 6 tracker dogs, to tsunami-hit Japan.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Saturday that the decision to send the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Smart) team after Japan requested help in search and rescue efforts.

“The Government expresses its sympathies to the Japan government and its people.

“As a show of our compassion to them, Malaysia will send our Smart team to assist in the search and rescue operation in Japan,’’ he told reporters after visiting Universiti Malaysia Pahang in Kuala Pahang here on Saturday.

About nine hundred are confirmed dead and thousands of people were feared dead after a tsunami triggered by one of the biggest earthquakes in history hit Japan on Friday.

On the fate of Malaysians in the country, Najib said they were reported to be safe and accounted for.

On the possibility of an evacuation exercise for Malaysians in view of unstable operations of nuclear plants in Japan following the earthquake, Najib said it would depend on the advice issued by the Japanese government.

“We will act based on the advice given on the danger level in the event of a nuclear leak.

“Otherwise, Malaysians in the country are safe and there is no need for them to be evacuated,’’ he added.

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