Members of the Canadian military's Disaster Assistance Response Team are on their way to tsunami- striken Sri Lanka, official sources said Thursday.
The first plane, loaded with equipment,has left Toronto for Sri Lanka Thursday morning. A second flight carrying personnel is scheduled for takeoff at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
The team is being sent to Ampara region on Sri Lanka's southeast coast, where 10,000 people died and 150,000 have been left homeless from the tsunami catastrophe.
The local airport in Ampara is too small to accommodate the large Russian aircraft the Canadian government have hired to transport the team, so the planes will land in the capital of Colombo, some 200 kilometres away.
The team will be bringing four planeloads of materials, including 40 vehicles, equipment for water purification, and a 43- member medical team.