Chief Executive Donald Tsang pledged that the SAR government will exhaust all efforts to establish contact with Hong Kong people stranded in Sichuan province.

Tsang told reporters that before heading off to Singapore on Friday and added that the government will closely monitor the situation in the earthquake-stricken province.

A second government rescue team, comprising 20 firemen and ambulance men, arrived in Sichuan and joined the first rescue team on Friday morning in Hanwang county, Mianzhu.

As of 7pm on Friday, the rescue teams had found eight bodies from under the rubble of a collapsed office building. It was believed that another 16 persons were still trapped.

Rescue team captain, Fire Services Department division commander Tam Tai-keung, said the operation was difficult because of aftershocks from time to time.

"An aftershock measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale happened at 11:30am on Friday, and all rescuers had to be evacuated," he said.

The team had used advanced equipment, such as life detectors, in its rescue operation.

Liu Shao-hei from a rescue team sent by the Hospital Authority who was working in West China Hospital said psychologists were very much needed in the quake-striken areas.

"We hope that Hong Kong can send experts to provide trauma therapies to the victims," he said.

As of 11pm on Friday, the Immigration Department had received 121 requests for assistance and 401 inquiries.

Among the 95 Hong Kong residents who had reportedly lost contact with their families, 86 of them have already re-established contact with their family members, the department said.

A newly-married policeman and his wife, who were in Sichuan to take wedding photos and had lost contact with their families in Hong Kong at one point, were reported safe on Friday.

But they were still stranded in Aba because roads to Chengdu were still not cleared.

Two university students who were previously reported missing were confirmed safe. One of them, a Chinese University student named Lin Jie, established contact with his mother.

The university has passed the information of Lin to the Immigration Department, the Central Government's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, and the SAR government office in Beijing.

A third-year City University student, who walked from Jiuzhaigou to Huanglong Airport on Friday morning, also contacted her family. She planned to go back to Hong Kong via Chengdu.

A 60-year-old Hong Kong woman surnamed Poon, who went to Sichuan for volunteer work, sustained serious head injuries and received treatment at Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital. She flew back to Hong Kong on Friday.

(HK Edition 05/17/2008 page1)