News - Middle East: The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) says the country has dispatched another consignment of relief aid to Turkey for people in the quake-stricken regions.

Pirhossein Kolivand, who was speaking to reporters on Monday, said the society took steps to send search and rescue teams as well as necessary equipment and supplies to areas of Turkey and Syria hit by the recent deadly earthquake.

“Today, we sent another plane [carrying aid] to Turkey with the assistance of the [Iranian] Air Force,” he added.

According to the latest figures, Turkey's combined official death toll with Syria from the earthquake now stands at more than 37,000 and is predicted to rise further as hopes fade of finding many more survivors.

One week after the powerful earthquake, Turkish media reported that a handful of people were still being pulled from the rubble and increasingly desperate conditions for survivors battling lack of hygiene, toilets and water.

The IRCS head said the Iranian relief and rescue team includes 50 individuals and a number of doctors.

Kolivand added that from the very first day, Iran's relief teams have managed to rescue people alive from under the rubble by using rescue and search dogs and search devices.

He noted that the search and rescue teams are removing the debris in search of many people from under the rubble to save their lives.

The IRCS has also built field hospitals both in Syria and Turkey, the Iranian official said.

Iran has so far dispatch six batches of humanitarian aid to crisis-ridden Syria.

In a telephone conversation with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mirjana Spoljaric Egger on Thursday evening, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran is ready to immediately dispatch humanitarian aid convoys and rescue teams to Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib as millions of people are in urgent need of food, shelter and warm clothes.

Source: Press TV