Rescuers get prepared to board a plane in Xining, northwest China's Qinghai Province, April 14, 2010.  [Xinhua]

Rescue teams from the central government, neighboring areas and armed forces are on their way to northwest China's Qinghai Province, which was hit by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake early Wednesday.

A 15-member rescue team from the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) left Beijing on a flight to Qinghai at 11:40 AM, the CEA said in a statement to Xinhua.

In addition, a 62-member rescue team of the provincial earthquake department in Qinghai was en route to Yushu, a Tibetan autonomous prefecture in western Qinghai, while 40 rescuers had been dispatched from Qamdo, in neighboring Tibet, the statement said.

Rescuers in neighboring Gansu, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and Ningxia were also on the way to the region, according to the CEA.

The armed police headquarters had ordered 600 officers, stationed in Yushu, to take part in rescue work and 2,100 more officers in Qinghai were on stand by, according to a headquarters spokesman.

The Lanzhou military command has sent one of its top medical teams, which specialists in high-altitude operations, the military command headquarters told Xinhua.

Army personnel stationed in Yushu had been ordered to help with rescue work immediately and a regiment stationed in Xining, the Qinghai provincial capital, were preparing to deploy to the region, the sources said.

At least 300 people have died and 8,000 others were injured in the earthquake, which hit Yushu County in Yushu prefecture at 7:49 AM, according to the local government.

More than 85 percent of the houses in Jiegu Township, near the epicenter, had collapsed.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said in a press release that it would send 5,000 tents, 50,000 cotton coats and 50,000 quilts to the quake-hit region.

The provincial government had also arranged to send 5,000 tents, the statement said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2010)