The Ministry of Railways (MOR) said Wednesday it had put on another three special trains to transport the injured out of Sichuan Province, after consultation with the Ministry of Health.

The three trains were, respectively, from Deyang, a badly-hit city to Chongqing Municipality; from Jiangyou city to Kunming, capital city of Yunnan Province; and from Deyang to Guiyang, capital city of Guizhou Province, said Wang Yongping, spokesman with the MOR.

The known death toll from the devastating earthquake rose to 41,353 nationwide as of noon on Wednesday, and another 274,683 people were injured after the 8.0-magnitude quake on May 12.

The MOR had deployed six special trains by Wednesday to evacuate 1,538 injured people to neighboring localities for better medical treatment, added Wang.

The MOR said it had prepared 100 special trains that would run as needed to transport the injured out of quake-ravaged areas.

The rail system had carried 180,000 tents, 405,000 pieces of medicine, 1.98 million quilts and cotton-padded coats, 4.51 million boxes of bottled water and 1.09 million boxes of food to the quake-battered regions as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2008)