(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-14 21:24

The soldiers, from the Chengdu Military Area Command, have set up a communication center and had connected Wenchuan with the disaster-relief headquarters in Dujiangyan, Xu said.

A team of 30 medical workers from the same military command flew to the county in the afternoon to supplement the telecommunications team with whom Xu flew in.

After landing, soldiers immediately began unloading supplies. Dozens of villagers helped the soldiers move supplies to their village.

"More than a dozen people died in our village and we are badly in need of food and water," one villager told Xu. "We've been looking forward to some aid, and you finally come."

"It's a pity the supplies we could bring are limited," said head of the helicopter brigade Tang Chun. They had tried but failed to fly to Wenchuan for the past two days, because of bad weather.

"We should try to do more rescue work today," Tang said.

Xu's helicopter then flew to neighbouring Yingxiu Town to carry injured people back to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

Meanwhile, reporter Zhu Yingtao arrived in Yingniu at around 11:30 a.m., also with PLA soldiers, traveling by boat and on foot.

They saw hundreds of people fleeing the town. "They all looked to be on the edge of collapsing because of fear and fatigue," said Zhu.

"I saw an almost 100-meter road bridge, which had broken and fallen into the Minjiang River near the town," said Zhu. The bridge was later identified as Baihua Bridge.

He said he saw rubble and debris from collapsed houses and buildings along the Minjiang river during a boat trip from Chengdu to Wenchuan.

(Writing by Ding Yimin.)

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