Foreign and Military Affairs

Chinese rescue team arrives in Pakistan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-26 22:28

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - A 55-member Chinese rescue team arrived at the Chaklala Airbase in Rawalpindi near the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Thursday afternoon, along with 25 tons of high-tech medical equipment and medicines.

The Chinese international search and rescue team includes 36 doctors and 19 experts and engineers equipped with medical supplies worth 8 million Chinese yuan ($1.2 million), the team leader Huang Jianfa told Xinhua.

Chinese rescue team arrives at the Chaklala Airbase in Pakistan, Aug 26, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

The rescue team will be conducting relief operations in the worst flood-hit areas in south Pakistan for at least three weeks and help flood victims fight against water-borne and other diseases, Huang said.

"Some of the members had been working here in Pakistan in the 2005 earthquake, we know very well what we are needed to do," he said.

Receiving the team at the airport, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Liu Jian said it will be immediately dispatched to Thatta in southern Sindh province where high-level floods are washing away hundreds of villages overnight.

The ambassador said that China, as a close and friendly neighbor of Pakistan, feels as much pain as Pakistan does and would like to continue to assist Pakistan within its capability in order to support the Pakistani people in overcoming the disaster at an early date.

Syed Hasan Javed, Pakistani Additional Foreign Secretary, said that Pakistan is greatly grateful to China for its timely and effective aid, especially at a time when China itself is suffering from flood and mudslide.

The month-long devastating floods, the worst in Pakistan's history, have affected over 20 million people and destroyed 900, 000 homes.

On Wednesday, China decided to donate an additional 60 million yuan of emergency humanitarian aid to Pakistan, totaling Chinese relief aid to more than 130 million yuan ($20 million) to the flooded Pakistanis.

The new aid mainly includes tents, water purification plants and other necessities that the Pakistani people urgently need at the moment, according to the Chinese embassy.