Russian rescuers have found the body of a Russian professor who died as he was teaching a class when the massive earthquake struck Haiti last week.
Nikolai Sukhomlin, 64, a professor at the Autonomous University of Santo-Domingo, was lecturing when the quake completely destroyed the university building, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Venezuela, Alexei Seredin, told Radio Mayak on Monday.
Sukhomlin's wife, a national of the Dominican Republic, has identified his body.
Sukhomlin is the first Russian known to have died in the magnitute-7 earthquake that destroyed the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, last Tuesday. At least 50,000 people were killed in the disaster.
In addition to finding Sukhomlin, the rescue team from the Emergency Situations Ministry has treated 60 injured people, including 16 children, and performed 16 operations at a mobile hospital over the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement Monday.
Two Emergency Situations Ministry jets delivered 80 tons of humanitarian aid, including food, from Caracas, Venezuela, to Port-au-Prince on Monday morning, the statement said.
The Russian Red Cross has opened a bank account to collect funds to help Haitians, RIA-Novosti reported. Account details were published on Redcross.ru.
Haitian students at Moscow's People's Friendship University have called on the Russian government to organize the collection of money for quake survivors and to send more rescuers to Haiti, including to areas outside Port-au-Prince, Ekho Moskvy reported.
The quake killed the parents of at least three Haitian students at People's Friendship University, a Haitian student told RIA-Novosti on Monday. The majority of the 51 Haitian students at the university haven't managed to establish contact with their relatives, another Haitian student said.
The quake also damaged the main Russian Orthodox Church in Haiti, the Temple of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Interfax reported.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Emergency Situations Ministry to send rescuers and humanitarian aid to Haiti the day after the quake. In all, the Russian rescuers have treated 155 people and performed 47 operations as of Monday morning, the ministry said. A total of 218 people have received psychological assistance, it said.
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