HEREFORDSHIRE’S Dr Malcolm Russell is part of the UK international search and rescue team that has reached Nepal.

Dr Russell, CEO of Hope-under-Dinmore based Prometheus Medical, a medical incident officer with West Midlands ambulance service and a BASIC emergency doctor with the MARS (Mercia Accident Rescue Service) in the county, is waiting for deployment into the disaster zone where he, and the specialist team he is leading, will work.

With him is Prometheus colleague and medical director Dr Richard Lyon.

Together they flew out, via Delhi, on Sunday with the UK response team of 67 fire-fighters / medics, 4 dogs and over a tonne of heavy rescue equipment, taking his experience of disaster zones like the Christchurch earthquake and Japanese tsunami with him.

In Nepal, Dr Russell, CEO of Hope-under-Dinmore based Prometheus Medical, will head up an urban search and rescue medical team.

On the ground, he will have a BGAN global satellite internet system that connects a laptop to broadband internet in remote locations, and, if able, he will send updates from the rescue and recovery effort.

Word has been heard from former Hereford Sixth Form College student Ruby Kwong, currently on a gap year  teaching English in a remote Nepalese mountain community.

The charity Project Trust – with whom Ruby is working – has told the Hereford Times that it could currently account for the “safety and whereabouts” of all its volunteers in Nepal as of early Saturday morning.

A article on Ruby’s time in Nepal featured in the Hereford Times in January.