150 people rescued within 72 hours after Lushan quake

BEIJING - Firefighters located 165 people, including 150 survivors, within 72 hours after a 7.0-magnitude quake hit southwest China on Saturday, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said Tuesday.

The ministry's fire department said firefighters relocated 6,976 people to safety within the first 72 hours after the quake, the period dubbed the "golden time" for saving lives.

The provincial fire department deployed 2,150 firefighters, 450 fire trucks and six sniffer dogs to join rescue efforts after the quake jolted Lushan County, Sichuan Province, at 8:02 a.m. Saturday.

The fire department of the MPS also dispatched 224 firefighters, 46 fire trucks and five sniffer dogs from neighboring Chongqing Municipality to the quake-hit area.

Firefighters have set up 1,151 tents for those affected by the earthquake and delivered 1,827 tonnes of water to them.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Tuesday dispatched another 30,000 tents to quake-hit areas. It also pledged to direct local civil affairs bureaus to properly organize the receiving, recording, storage and distribution of relief materials in order to maintain quake victims' daily subsistence.

As of Monday night, the ministry had sent 25,000 tents, 137,000 cotton blankets, 10,000 items of clothing and food and drinking water to affected areas.

In another development, rescuers from the General Hospital of the People's Armed Police Force (PAPF) have set up a mobile hospital on the playground of a middle school in Shuangshi Township, as most of the injured people there are elderly and frail people who are vulnerable to poor sanitary conditions and various potential diseases.

With basic equipment and 200 types of drugs, nine medical experts in the 15-square-meter area of tents are treating villagers for trauma and upper respiratory infections, conducting physical exams and preventing the outbreak of any epidemics.

Figures from the National Health and Family Planning Commission showed that a total of 15,554 wounded people had been treated as of 7 p.m. Tuesday, with 4,619 discharged from hospitals and 6,087 being hospitalized.

No major epidemic or emergency health incidents have been found so far in the quake zone, according to the commission.

Concerning relief donations, a total of 66 charity groups, including China Foundation For Poverty Alleviation and Shenzhen One Foundation, announced that they had received a total of 438 million yuan (71 million U.S. dollars) as quake relief funds as of 8 a.m. Tuesday.

According to Tao Ze, vice president of the China Foundation Center (CFC), these 66 foundations have all been releasing detailed information such as donation sources and the use of the funds on the CFC website.

Currently, China Foundation For Poverty Alleviation has spent five million out of 100 million yuan received on purchasing relief materials in the quake zone. Bottled water, instant food, milk powder and disinfectors are en route to the region.