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)