(Xinhua/China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-17 08:34

QINGCHUAN, Sichuan - A team of Japanese rescuers arrived here in one of the province's worst-hit counties at 3:30 pm on Friday, and immediately got on with the job of trying to save lives.

The 31-member team was the first foreign aid group to arrive in China. Others, from Russia, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Singapore, arrived in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, later on Friday, and are also now involved in the massive rescue operation.

The Japanese team was sent to help at a six-story residential building.

Team leader Takashi Koizumi said three survivors had been found in the rubble and the rescuers were digging them out by hand, as they feared using machinery might cause a further collapse.

Nine bodies had earlier been pulled out of the debris, he said.

Twenty-nine other Japanese rescue professionals, with their sniffer dogs, joined the original team later on Friday, Koizumi said.

The workers will stay in Qingchuan for about a week, he said.

A team of 50 Russian experts and sniffer dogs joined the rescue effort in Mianzhu, while a second group, of 48, is expected to arrive on Saturday morning.

The ROK team headed to Shifang soon after their arrival in Chengdu, while a 55-member Singaporean team is also en route there.

Li Wenliang, from the Foreign Ministry, said this was the first time China had accepted foreign professionals for domestic disaster rescue and relief.

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong rescue team led by the region's fire services department, and an assessment team from its hospital authority, are also working in quake-hit areas.

Tam Tai-keung, an officer with the Hong Kong fire services department, said about 40 rescue workers are working in the town of Hanwang, near Deyang.

The team has so far pulled seven bodies from the remains of a collapsed steam turbine factory, and has located three others, Tam said.

However, more than 160 workers at the town's biggest factory are still missing.

Aftershocks have continued to interrupt rescue work, Tam said. "When they happen, we have to stop work and take shelter," he said.