Special report: Strong Earthquake Jolts SW China    

    DUJIANGYAN, May 13 (Xinhua) -- China is trying to step up its disaster-relief work, with the State Council setting up an emergency command in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province on Monday, as aftershocks jolted quake-hit areas in southwest China.

    Premier Wen Jiabao held a meeting at the emergency command Monday evening with officials from the State Seismological Bureau and Ministry of Civil Affairs to work out plans for disaster relief.

    As of 8 Tuesday, 16 aftershocks measuring on the Richter scale 5, including two aftershocks measuring 6, had been recorded in disaster-hit areas in southwest China following a 7.8-magnitudeearthquake in Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province Monday.

    The results were released by Chinese organizations of seismological studies, which are doing earthquake monitoring in those areas. To better monitor the aftershocks, a national team of on-spot monitoring and their counterparts in Yunnan, Chongqing, Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi were sent to disaster-hit areas.

    Two teams for emergency disaster-relief work, with a total of 214 members, flied from Beijing Monday evening to go to disaster-hit area. The teams contain 44 seismologists and staffs for emergency aid, 22 medical workers from the hospitals of armed police and 148 specially-trained soldiers for disaster-relief.

    The national emergency aid team was divided into two groups upon arrival in Dujiangyan. One group went to the Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where a six-story building collapsed in the quake, to help with rescue work. The other group went to Juyuan Middle School in Juyuan Town. As of early morning of Tuesday, the two rescue teams have dug out 22 people, but three of them were dead.

    The on-spot work team of Sichuan Seismological Bureau set up satellite communication system, and held a teleconference to discuss disaster-relief work and deliver the orders of Premier Wen. On-spot teams in other Sichuan cities including Zigong and Ya'an also rushed to Dujiangyan for help.

    The Chinese government will also summon earthquake rescue teams from Chongqing, Yunnan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and Hainan to the disaster-hit areas.