Europe News

Spain to send warship to Haiti (2nd Roundup)

Jan 19, 2010, 13:40 GMT

Madrid - Spain will send a military logistics support vessel with 450 soldiers on board to help in the Haiti relief effort, Defence Minister Carme Chacon said Tuesday.

MS Castilla was due to leave for the Caribbean nation on Saturday and to arrive more than 10 days later.

The soldiers on board were to include a 50-member medical team with operations theatres, 80 beds and the capacity to set up a hospital on land. The Castilla would also to carry security personnel, engineers, boats, and three helicopters, Chacon said.

Forty members of a Spanish military emergency team are already in Haiti doing rescue and reconstruction work in the aftermath of last Tuesday's earthquake, the minister explained.

A police officer who worked for the United Nations mission in Haiti was meanwhile reported as the third Spanish fatality in the earthquake, the officer's family said.

Rescuers retrieved a body which was believed to be that of Rosa Crespo, 47, from the ruins of a collapsed building.

Chacon said the identity of the body would be confirmed as soon as fingerprint results came in.

A Spanish couple were earlier confirmed to have died in the earthquake. About twelve Spaniards remain missing, including a European Union diplomat who was erroneously confirmed as having died.