The army has dispatched 70 medical teams to quake-stricken areas in the southwest Sichuan Province, the General Logistics Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) said here on Wednesday.

Among the teams, 50 were from PLA hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. The teams left at 2:00 PM on Wednesday and were expected to land at Shuangliu Airport near downtown Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.

Ninety medical staff from the General Hospital of the Beijing Area Command and another 30 from the No. 261 Hospital of the Beijing Area Command joined the mission.

They all left Beijing's Nanyuan Airport on Wednesday afternoon.

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2008)