Eighteen members of the Hunan Blue Sky Rescue Team gathered and departed for earthquake-stricken areas in Gansu Province at 16:00 on December 19, to participate in search and rescue operations.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted Jishishan County of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Gansu Province, at 11:59 p.m. Monday (Beijing Time). The epicenter has a focal depth of 10 km. The whole nation has been concerned about the well-being of the affected individuals in the disaster-stricken areas.

The rescue team members are from the Hunan Red Cross Blue Sky Rescue Team, the Liuyang Red Cross Blue Sky Rescue Team, and the Anhua Blue Sky Rescue Team. All of them have rich experience in search and rescue operations, and some also joined last year's strong earthquake international rescue mission in Türkiye. Before departure, the team members prepared radar life detectors, break-in tools, power generation and lighting equipment, and other search and rescue equipment.

The Blue Sky Rescue Team is a Chinese civil relief squad with retired military personnel as the backbone. It was said that the Hunan Red Cross Blue Sky Rescue Team has dispatched six team members, including four retired soldiers such as Ho Yi.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: Voice of Hunan