An Airbus A380 carrier carrying more than 1,100 tents for people left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake, arrived in China's southwest Sichuan Province on Saturday.

An Airbus A380 carrier carrying more than 1,100 tents for people left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude earthquake arrives in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 31, 2008. [eastday.com]

The plane took off from Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris at 4 p.m. on Friday (local time) and landed at Shuangliu International Airport in the provincial capital Chengdu at 8:45 a.m. on Saturday.

It was the first time the world's largest passenger plane had flown to Chengdu.

Another plane from France, an Airbus A340-300, arrived at Shuangliu airport on Saturday afternoon, with more than 1,000 tents that can house four to six people each.

The tents were purchased by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese embassy in France and the Association for the Promotion of Economic and Cultural Exchanges between France and China with donated money.

Most of the tents were of medium size and reinforced, specially made for the needs of quake victims and relief soldiers, said Kong Quan, the Chinese ambassador to France, on Friday.

An A380 double-deck jetliner developed by French aircraft manufacturer Airbus has a capacity to seat more than 800 passengers. Four such carriers have been put to use up to now.

The death toll in the earthquake that struck Sichuan on May 12 rose to 68,977 as of Saturday noon, with another 367,854 listed as injured, 17,974 missing and 15.15 million relocated, the Information Office of the State Council said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 1, 2008)