The majority of the fund will go to earthquake victims in the form of emergency disaster subsidies. The remaining 800,000 yuan (US$96,400) will be used to control and prevent possible epidemics from breaking out in the quake-hit areas, the Ministry of Finance said.

The earthquake struck at 6:58 pm on Saturday in Bairin Left Banner (equivalent to county) and Ar Horqin Banner in Chifeng, claiming three lives. More than 1,000 local residents have been reported injured so far, 54 of whom are in a critical condition.

More than 7,900 homes have been demolished and another 83,000 were damaged by the quake.

Despite the death toll remaining unchanged by late last night, about 600,000 residents have been heavily affected by the quake that measured 5.9 on the Richter scale.

Worse still, rain fell in the region yesterday, making life even tougher for the disaster-stricken residents.

Last night, the local meteorological station forecast that the bad weather would continue.

Although no additional deaths were recorded directly from the earthquake, a seismological administrative official from neighboring Liaoning Province died in a traffic accident while on the way to the area.

Gao Rongsheng with the China Seismological Bureau said the deceased was the director of the Liaoning Earthquake Monitoring Network, Wu Xiaobing, who was 43. Wu was among a nine-person group sent to observe aftershocks in the disaster-hit area.

Some residents in Beijing, Tianjin and Northeast China's Liaoning Province felt the earthquake as it struck.

(China Daily August 19, 2003)