S'pore pulls forces out of tsunami areas

S'pore pulls forces out of tsunami areas

SINGAPORE: Singapore, a key contributor in tsunami-relief efforts, is pulling its search and rescue teams out of hard-hit areas in Thailand and Indonesia as reconstruction work gets underway, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Just 12 members of the 80-strong team from the Singapore Civil Defense Force remain in Phuket, where hundreds of foreign tourists were among the casualties in the Dec. 26 tsunami, the paper said. Among those staying are police officers working to identify victims through DNA matching, it said.

All 27 team members sent to Indonesia's battered Aceh province have also returned home, although several hundred members of the Singaporean armed forces remain on the ground in Indonesia and aboard ships and aircraft to deliver relief supplies to Aceh.

Tiny Singapore was among the first countries to send rescuers, and its forces were instrumental in opening supply lines to some of the worst affected areas in Aceh.

Rescuers recovered scores of bodies and scoured the Phuket area for Singaporean vacationers, 15 of whom are still listed as missing. At least nine Singaporeans died in the disaster. --AP