Padang - Dozens of foreign military personnel have arrived at West Sumatra to assist in the ongoing rescue efforts following the 7.6 magnitude earthquake which had massively rocked Padang city and other nearby areas in the province.

According to the Coordination Unit for Disaster Mitigation (Satkorlak) of the Disaster Management Agency in Padang, West Sumatra, Sunday, several foreign high-ranking military officers coordinated and reported their arrival to the Command Post.

Most of them came from the United States, Australia and some countries in Europe and Asia.

Their military trucks also began to arrive in Padang like the Malaysian trucks already there.

Besides military personnel, hundreds of volunteers from dozens of social agencies and foreign SAR (search and rescue) institutions have also arrived in West Sumatra.

Foreign SAR teams, such as from Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the European Union and many others are under the coordination of the United Nations.

Previously, US military personnel offered assistance, equipment and machinery which had been flown to the province by aircraft carriers.

The assistance was offered by the U.S. government through its Consul General in Sumatra, Chief Executive of the West Sumatra Sarkorlak Marlis Rahman said.

The US aircraft carrier with hundreds of military personnel and under the escort of a U.S. corvette had been carrying the relief assistance, he added.

He said that according to the U.S. consul-general, in the next several days more relief and rescue personnel will be coming to West Sumatra.

-Antara, 05 October 2009-