China's first red cross medical team for tsunami-hit victims in south and southeast Asian countries was formed Saturday and is scheduled to set out next week.

The medical team was composed of 15 medical personnel in Huashan Hospital, the only high-level medical organ directly under the jurisdiction of the China Red Cross Society.

The hospital had sent its staff to rescue the victims of the devastating earthquake in Tangshan City in 1976, which killed 242,000 lives, and those injured in the heavy floods in southern China in 1998 and in the deadly SARS epidemic in 2003.

Members of the team are below the age of 50, in good health, have rich clinical experience and speak English. They were chosen mainly from cardiological, epidemiological, respiratory, digestive, skeletal and surgical departments.

They are scheduled to leave for Indonesia on Jan. 11 and remain there for a month. 

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2005)