Rescue team dispatched to Indonesia

China dispatched a 44-member rescue team and 5 tons of medical materials to Indonesia yesterday, as international aid trickled in for the survivors of the earthquake on the island of Java that has killed more than 5,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

The team, headed by China Seismological Bureau (CSB) deputy head Zhao Heping, was composed of rescuers, doctors and seismologists, according to a CSB statement.

A Chinese seismologist joining a five-member United Nations delegation to evaluate the disaster arrived in Indonesia prior to the rescue team's departure.

It is the fifth time China has sent a rescue team abroad to carry out international humanitarian aid since 2003. The first team was sent after an earthquake in Algeria in May 2003.

Also yesterday, the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) donated US$50,000 to its Indonesian counterpart.

The Chinese Government earlier offered US$2 million to Indonesia and is considering providing more relief staff and materials for the affected area.

Two embassy officials have been sent to search for Chinese citizens in central Java, but there have been no reports of Chinese casualties, sources from the embassy in Jakarta said.

The 6.3 magnitude quake's official death toll has reached 5,136. The tremor early on Saturday was centred just off the Indian Ocean coast near Yogyakarta, the former Javanese royal capital. It is Indonesia's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.

Government figures put the number of injured at 2,155, but the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said there were 20,000 injured and more than 130,000 homeless, of which 40 per cent are children.

Hospital lists of the dead also showed children and old people, who had a harder time scrambling from houses as they collapsed, as disproportionately represented among the victims.

The UN children's fund said the first emergency airlift arrived early yesterday, bringing water tanks, tents and tarpaulins to Yogyakarta.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released an emergency grant of US$50,000 for the second consecutive day to help the victims, but said it will need much more to send additional food, medicine and other supplies.

Representatives of United Nations agencies as well as the international Red Cross and other aid organizations were meeting to coordinate a relief plan before briefing donor governments on what types of funds and assistance are needed. An emergency appeal by the global body is expected later this week.

The most urgent needs, according to UN officials on the ground, are generators, tents, three 100-bed field hospitals and medical supplies mostly for treating broken limbs. Officials said they hoped to meet these requirements within three days.

Source: China Daily