BEIJING, April 26, (ChinaMil) -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese People's Armed Police Force (APF) have committed a task force of 13,000-plus military servicemen and 5,900-plus militiamen to the Lushan earthquake relief operations in southwest China’s Sichuan province, covering 18 towns and townships, with 17 fixed wing airplanes, 45 helicopters and 1,071 vehicles and machines put to use by 19:00, April 24, according to the briefing made by Yang Yujun, spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The task force has searched and rescued 144 trapped people, treated 21,000 injured people on site, carried out 129 surgeries, transferred 46,000 people in difficulty, decontaminated areas of 175,000 square meters, set up14,000-odd tents, emergently repaired roads of 300-odd kilometers, transported 10,000-odd tons of emergency rescue materials and air-dropped 13 tons of supplies.
The spokesman stated that the earthquake relief operations were carried out with insistence on rapid response and the principles of using close-by military force and professional application of the force. National earthquake disaster emergency rescue teams and such professional forces as the engineering, medical, transportation, epidemic prevention and other forces were dispatched at the first moment with early-warning aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft, remote sensing aircraft, large-size transportation aircraft and helicopters sent out for aerial survey, damaged road repair, field hospital set-up, and with such professional rescue equipment as life detector, wall-penetrating radar, demolition tool and so forth utilized for life-searching.
Yang Yujun said that compared with the earthquake relief work in Wenchuan, the earthquake relief operation implemented in Lushan showed significant advancement in terms of scientific application of the military force, professional level and information-based level. After this tough task, the Chinese armed forces will continue to strengthen and improve relevant work and keep upgrading the capability to carry out such tasks of the military operations other than war (MOOTW) as rescue and relief.
"In the unexpected accident which happened on April 20, two of our comrades unfortunately sacrificed their lives. We feel very sorry for the loss and want to express our condolences to their families," the spokesman added.
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