Emergency rescuers leave for Peru

A specialist rescue team from Gloucestershire is on its way to Peru to help search for survivors of the earthquake, which killed hundreds.

The four-man party from Rapid UK, based at Quedgeley, is due to arrive in the South American country in the early hours of Saturday.

The organisation has spent the last two years training a Peruvian team in search and rescue techniques.

Rapid UK deployed teams to assist in the recent flooding in Gloucestershire.

Despite their operational headquarters being flooded, the teams helped local residents affected by the severe flooding by delivering drinking water, groceries and medicines and rescuing people.

The organisation also sent teams to the Toll Bar area of Yorkshire during the flooding and team members pulled seven survivors from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005.