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Brit rescuers denied entry
18/05/2008 16:25 - (SA)
Hong Kong - China has denied entry to a British rescue team who had flown to Hong Kong to help search for survivors from a devastating earthquake in the southwest of the country, a member of the team said on Sunday.
The 10-man team from the charity International Rescue Corps arrived back in Britain on Sunday, after authorities declined them permission to enter the mainland and help the search for survivors.
"It is frustrating," Willie McMartin, director of the charity, told AFP by phone.
"When you are handed a sheet of paper from the Chinese government requesting specialist equipment and you have it available at no cost to them in Hong Kong, and they will not let you in - it is just such a pity." lack of expertise
The team had arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday following Monday's quake and despite China granting permission to other foreign operations to provide help, they were denied entry on Saturday by authorities in Beijing, McMartin said.
McMartin said his team had watched on television as the Chinese search operation in one town had to wait for cranes to lift rubble where people were trapped.
"We would have tunnelled through, they did not have the kind of knowledge to do it, but we have done it on countless occasions," he said.
The government has estimated more than 50 000 people died in last Monday's earthquake, China's worst natural disaster in a generation.
- AFP
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