Tan: One of Bird's dogs who worked in Turkey

The group - which includes a retired police dog handler and a specialist firefighter - were finally given the go-ahead from the Indian authorities late on Tuesday.

The volunteers - whose missions have included earthquake rescues in Turkey in 1999- are currently bound for the devastated western Indian State of Gujarat with a highly-trained German Shepherd called Sian.

They will begin searching ruins after the earthquake, which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, flattened much of Gujarat.

Phil Coghlan: 'It is not too late'

The official death toll is now more than 7,100 with local officials estimating it could rise as high as 20,000.

Rescue team member Phil Coghlan said: "I believe it is not too late - we would not be going out there if it was.

"There are people being rescued as we speak, so it is important that we get there as soon as possible."

British Rescue Dog team leader Russ Vaughan added there are continuing hopes of finding survivors in the main city of Ahmedabad - five days after the disaster.

We think it is possible to survive for 10 to 12 days

Team leader Russ Vaughan

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a 55-year-old woman was rescued after spending nearly 120 hours trapped in debris.

"There are so many areas that haven't been searched and there is a good chance that there will be somebody there," Mr Vaughan said as he waited to depart from Heathrow.

"We think it is possible to survive for 10 to 12 days.

"In other disasters we've been to we've always found this to be the case, that people have come out days and days after most teams have given up and gone home.

"So we feel that there is so much that hasn't been searched we should give it a go," he said.

The Hindu community in Cardiff has stepped up an appeal to send aid to the Gujarat region of their birth.

More than �30,000 has been raised in the Welsh capital in just three days and a shipment of clothes will be sent to Bhuj later this week.

Around 500 people from the Bjuj area live in the Grangetown area of the city.

Already three Cardiff families have had news from India that members of their families have perished in the earthquake.

But hundreds more are waiting for news.