Beijing - A 20-strong Indonesian medical team was on Thursday sent to Lanzhao in China's Gansu province to help local people injured in  earthquakes that hit the region recently, an Indonesian embassy official said,

"The dispatch of the medical team  is part of Indonesia's assistance to the Chinese government to alleviate the sufferings of  earthquake victims, in this case,  those living in Gansu province," Indonesian Embassy spokesperson Rosmalawati Khalid said here on Friday.

She said Indonesia had originally planned to send 63 doctors to Gansu province but only 20 were eventually assigned in accordance with a recommendation from the Chinese government.

Pakistan also sent a medical team to Gansu  on Thursday so there were now at least two foreign medical teams  helping earthquake victims in the Chinese province, she said.

She added that based on a proposal from the Gansu provincial disaster mitigation center, the Indonesian  team was posted in Wenxian, Wudu district, and  the Pakistani team in Longnan city.

Wenxian is an area in Gansu province which bore the brunt of the powerful earthquake that rocked the area on May 12, 2008, killing at least 208 people and injuring more than 4,000 others.

An aftershock measuring 6 on the Richter scale hit the same area in Wenxian on May 25, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others. 

- Source : Antara News Agency, 30 May 2008