A Cuban medical team arrived in China's quake-ravaged Sichuan Province on Friday night to help with the rescue and relief efforts in the province.

The 35-member team, including surgeons and orthopaedists, arrived at the provincial capital Chengdu at 8:30 PM. They also had 3.5 tons of medicines and medical equipment, which were scheduled to arrive on Saturday.

Jose Rodriguiez, head of the team, said the members were all experienced professionals in response to natural disasters. They had participated in many international relief operations, such as southeast Asia tsunami and massive earthquake in Peru.

The team members felt very sad after learning the powerful quake in Sichuan from media reports, and they wanted to try their best to help with the rescue work, Jose Rodriguiez said.

China has agreed to accept medical teams from Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan for quake relief.

The death toll from last week's massive earthquake had risen to 55,239 in Sichuan alone as of 7:00 PM on Thursday. The quake also injured 281,066, while 24,949 were missing.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2008)