India, March 29 -- India on Saturday mobilised its armed forces for a mission to deliver dozens of tonnes of relief materials and to fly in an 80-member search and rescue team and a military field hospital to help victims of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Myanmar that killed more than 1,000 people.

The government had placed the three services and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on standby for an emergency response soon after the quake struck on Friday afternoon. The first Indian Air Force (IAF) transport aircraft took off with 15 tonnes of relief materials, including food and medical supplies, from Hindon airbase at 3 am on Saturday and reached Yangon at 8 am Indian time.

By 7.30 pm Indian time, a C-130 transport aircraft o...