Finnish, Estonian rescuers' Nepal mission canceled

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Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

The Finnish Interior Ministry has decided to cancel the Finnish rescue team's mission to Nepal and in connection with this Estonian rescuers will not be flying to Nepal either.

Esa Ahlberg from the Finnish crisis management center said the reason for the decision was that the Nepalese authorities did not give the plane which was to take the rescuers to Nepal permission to land. The Finnish rescuers' objective was to search for the people trapped in the rubble, but the Nepalese authorities said on Monday that additional help for search operations was not needed, he explained.

Estonia planned to send a 15-strong rescue team to Nepal. "If the Finns are not flying, the Estonian team will not be able to fly either, because the flight was planned in cooperation with Finnish rescuers," a spokesperson for the Rescue Board told BNS.

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