Foreign rescuers battle for lives in quake-hit Shifang

Source: Xinhua | 05-18-2008 10:20

SHIFANG, Sichuan 17 (Xinhua) -- Foreign rescue teams have joined the front line in the battle to free those trapped after Monday's devastating earthquake in southwest China.

A member of a rescue team from Singapore searches  for survivors in the quake-hit Hongbai Town of  Shifang City in southwest China's Sichuan Province,  May 17, 2008. The team of 55 members from Singapore  started their rescue mission in the serious devastated  Hongbai Town on Saturday.(Xinhua/Jiang Fan)

A 55-member rescue team from Singapore on Saturday morning reached Hongbai town, one of the worst-hit areas in Shifang City, Sichuan Province, to assist rescue efforts.

The team arrived in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, at 7:40 p. m. Friday and reached Shifang city late the same day.

The team spokesman said they were experienced and had brought advanced equipment, four sniffer dogs, plus 14 days of survival supplies.

Meanwhile, the second group of 29 Japanese earthquake rescuers joined their colleagues in Beichuan County, one of the worst hit areas in Sichuan Province, to continue rescue operations.

The first group of 31 well-equipped Japanese rescuers arrived at Qingchuan Friday afternoon before leaving for Beichuan.

With the help of fiber scopes, grabs and drilling equipment, they dug out the corpses of two victims, Song Aimei and her 70-day-old baby, from the debris of a dormitory after 16 hours of work.

They had found no signs of life in the building which belonged to the Qingchuan County Hospital of Chinese Traditional Medicine, according to a Xinhua reporter who witnessed the rescue work.

Takashi Koizumi, head of the Japanese team, expressed condolences, and said it was a pity they had failed to find anyone alive.

ROK rescuers recover 4 bodies from debris

Also in Sichuan, rescuers from the Republic of Korea (ROK) have recovered four bodies from the debris of the Hongda chemical plant in Yinghua township, of Shifang, where two chemical plants were destroyed in the earthquake, leaking 80 tons of ammonia and forcing more than 6,000 people to evacuate.

The ROK rescue team, with 47 members, arrived at Shifang at Saturday midnight with life detection equipment, breathing apparatus, gas masks and searching dogs.

"We will give 100 percent even if there is just one percent of hope," said the team head surnamed Kim, an experienced disaster relief worker.

A rescue teams from Russia, with 51 rescuers in all, are also at work in Mianzhu City.