The first batch of donated medicines arrived Wednesday morning at a hospital in the city of Qiqihar in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The first batch of donated medicines arrive at a hospital in Qiqihar, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, August 13, 2003. [newsphoto.com.cn]

The hospital had appealed to domestic pharmaceutical firms for emergency aid due to its growing number of people being exposed to chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops during their invasion of China.

The medicines, valued at about 300,000 yuan (US$36,150), were offered by two pharmaceutical enterprises in the Southwest China's Sichuan Province and are mainly for anti-bacterial treatment and improving the victims' health.

In the No 203 Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), the number of inpatients exposed to the mustard gas from the chemical weapons had risen to 37 by yesterday morning.

The drastic rise in the number of victims has resulted in an acute shortage of antibiotics and drugs for improving immunity, according to doctors at the hospital.

Much more medicine is on the way to the hospital, said Sun Jinghai, hospital president.

Deadly poisonous gas leaked on August 4 when five metal barrels were dug out and broken at a construction site in Qiqihar. And highly-toxic, oil-like material leaked out and infiltrated the soil.

Chemical weapons experts later confirmed that the material was mustard gas, and the barrels were chemical weapons left by the Japanese army intruders.

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