From Highland Towers tragedy to global rescue benchmark: Inside Malaysia’s SMART team

The tragedy highlighted the need for a specialised search and rescue team capable of responding to large-scale disasters, leading to the establishment of the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) on August 1, 1995.

More than three decades later, SMART has evolved into a Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team that meets the standards of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) under the United Nations (UN).

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