All the people left disabled by the massive May 12 quake in southwest China would get free artificial limbs and wheelchairs if needed, the China Disabled Persons' Federation announced on Thursday.

The project was launched in cooperation with the Hong Kong-based Li Ka Shing Foundation, the federation said.

Li Ka Shing, a Hong Kong tycoon, said he hoped the move would help those who lost their arms and legs in the quake could receive rehabilitation service as soon as possible and rebuild a new life.

Hundreds of technicians from 180 artificial limbs centers all over China would do the job for the disabled quake survivors.

Meanwhile, the federation said it would help build in quake-hit Sichuan a modern rehabilitation center for the disabled and offer long-term professional rehabilitation services for them.

So far, the federation has sent to the quake zone a 50-member national rehabilitation medical team to help the disabled.

The latest figures showed that 274,683 people were injured in the 8.0-magnitude quake that hit southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12. Some have suffered amputations and spinal injuries.

A 1988 survey said more than 3,000 survivors of a strong earthquake in Tangshan in north China's Hebei Province in 1976 were disabled with amputations, according to Director of the China Rehabilitation Research Center Li Jianjun.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2008)