Int’l teams hold emergency drill in Çanakkale

ÇANAKKALE

Approximately 2,500 search and rescue personnel from Türkiye and several countries have participated in a large-scale exercise simulating various accident, explosion, and disaster scenarios in the northwestern province of Çanakkale, under the management of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism.

Search and rescue teams from Germany, Azerbaijan, Portugal, Finland, Romania, Estonia, and Poland arrived to participate in the MED EU MODEX 2023 Çanakkale Medical Field Exercise, which took place from Sept. 18 to 22.

Within the scope of the exercise, in which 2,446 members from the teams and 202 vehicles took part, teams provided treatment to those injured in various accidents and explosions that occurred at various points in the city at field hospitals set up for the exercise.

On the second day of the drill, four people were trapped under the rubble in their house that was severely damaged in an earthquake. Upon notification, numerous teams were dispatched to rescue the trapped individuals. The injured individuals, who were rescued from the rubble through the efforts of the teams, were transported to field hospitals by ambulances.

In another exercise scenario, gendarmerie teams first reached the villager who was seriously injured after falling from a height in a mountainous area.

After providing initial intervention at the scene, the gendarmerie teams used colored smoke to enable a gendarmerie helicopter to find their location. Gendarme Search and Rescue (JAK) personnel, descending from the helicopter with a rope, transferred the injured man to the hospital.

The exercise aims to increase coordination, training and experience sharing within the scope of health interventions, search and rescue, evacuation, security, traffic and sheltering activities in order to facilitate international teams to work with each other in disasters and emergencies.