Foreign rescue teams have joined the front line in the battle to free those trapped after Monday's devastating earthquake in southwest China.

  A member of a rescue team from Singapore searches for survivors in the quake-hit Hongbai Town of Shifang City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 17, 2008. The team of 55 members from Singapore started their rescue mission in the serious devastated Hongbai Town on Saturday.

A 55-member rescue team from Singapore on Saturday morning reached Hongbai town, one of the worst-hit areas in Shifang City, Sichuan Province, to assist rescue efforts.

The team arrived in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, at 7:40 p. m. Friday and reached Shifang city late the same day.

The team spokesman said they were experienced and had brought advanced equipment, four sniffer dogs, plus 14 days of survival supplies.

Meanwhile, the second group of 29 Japanese earthquake rescuers joined their colleagues in Beichuan County, one of the worst hit areas in Sichuan Province, to continue rescue operations.

The first group of 31 well-equipped Japanese rescuers arrived at Qingchuan Friday afternoon before leaving for Beichuan.

With the help of fiber scopes, grabs and drilling equipment, they dug out the corpses of two victims, Song Aimei and her 70-day-old baby, from the debris of a dormitory after 16 hours of work.

They had found no signs of life in the building which belonged to the Qingchuan County Hospital of Chinese Traditional Medicine, according to a Xinhua reporter who witnessed the rescue work.