A special emergency team sent by the State Council has arrived at
the earthquake-affected zone of southwest
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to organize rescue and relief
efforts.
The team is headed by You Quan, deputy secretary general of the
State Council. Wang Lequan, secretary of the regional committee of
the Communist Party of China, and Ismail Tiliwaldi, chairman of the
regional government, have also arrived there.
Hu
Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of China, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao
and other leaders of the CPC central committee and the State
Council contacted the regional government of Xinjiang by telephone
on Monday shortly after the earthquake, to assess the losses and
rescue efforts.
The Party Central Committee and the State Council have also sent a
message to the Xinjiang regional Party committee and government,
people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, the People's Liberation
Army and armed police, asking them to work hard to save lives and
property, resume production and restore normality to daily
life.
China Seismological Bureau director Song Ruixiang and Civil Affairs
Vice-Minister Yang Yanyin have also flown to Xinjiang.
In
addition, a 50-member state rescue team set out for Xinjiang on
Monday and rushed to the earthquake-hit areas on arriving at Kashi
City Tuesday morning.
The first work team sent by the China Seismological Bureau is busy
monitoring aftershocks, and investigating casualties and economic
losses there.
The latest statistics show that 261 people are confirmed dead in
the devastating earthquake that hit Jiashi and Bachu counties on
Monday morning. More than 2,000 others were seriously injured.
Relief officials said that a total of 8,861 houses and 900 school
classrooms collapsed in the massive quake, which measured 6.8
degrees on the Richter scale.
(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2003)