South Korea’s 118-member disaster relief team arrived in quake-stricken Türkiye early hours Wednesday.

The foreign ministry announced that the Korea Disaster Relief Team(KDRT) boarded a KC-330 military transport aircraft at 1 a.m. and arrived at Gaziantep Oğuzeli International Airport at around 6:57 a.m.

Having touched down in Gaziantep Province, one of the areas hit hardest by the seven-point-eight magnitude quake that struck the southern region of the country on Monday, the team will consult with the Turkish government to determine their duties and area of operation.

Search and rescue efforts have become urgent amid plunging temperatures dropping to minus six degrees Celsius almost two days after the devastating quake, a time frame considered by experts to be critical in the rescue operations.

The KDRT includes officials from the National Fire Agency's 119 emergency rescue squad and the Korea International Cooperation Agency as well as personnel from the defense ministry. It is the largest contingent of its kind ever sent to a disaster area overseas.