The Ministry of Industry and Information made an urgent public call on Thursday for rescue equipment to aid the work in quake regions.

It listed 31 types of equipment, ranging from hammers, shovels and demolition tools to cranes, rubber boats and life detectors. The amount needed varied between several hundred and 50,000.

Many armed police and rescue workers had to remove cement slabs with their bare hands to save quake victims, news footage has shown.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2008)