The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Security have sent a joint expert team to quake-stricken Sichuan province to help deal with bodies of the victims.

The danger of an epidemic outbreak is rising as the rescue operations entered into the sixth day after the 7.8-magnitude quake that rocked Sichuan in southwest China on Monday.

Confirmed death toll has exceeded 22,000 and more than 50,000 are feared dead in the worst quake to hit China for three decades.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2008)