CHINA'S Chengdu Military Area Command has dispatched 5,000 troops and armed police to help with disaster relief work in Wenchuan County in southwestern Sichuan Province, which was struck by a major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Tian Yixiang, an officer with the emergency office of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), said the troops would assist local authorities in gauging the situation and helping with disaster relief work.

The Military Area Command sent two helicopters to Wenchuan on Monday afternoon.

Armed police forces stationed in Sichuan province dispatched 2,900 personnel, while regular army personnel made up the rest of the troop numbers.

The State Disaster Relief Commission has initiated a "Level II emergency contingency plan" to cope with Monday's strong earthquake in Southwest China.

According to China's regulations, natural disasters in the country are classified into four categories based on their severity.

The Level II emergency contingency plan covers the second-most serious class of natural disasters.

A team of experts from the State Disaster Relief Commission and the Civil Affairs Ministry will also go to the disaster-hit areas for relief work.

The Civil Affairs Ministry has allocated 5,000 tents to quake-hit areas in Sichuan.

An earthquake emergency relief team of 184 people left Beijing from Nanyuan Airport in two military transport planes Monday night to travel to the quake-hit Wenchuan County.

The team is comprised of 12 people from the State Seismological Bureau (SSB), 150 from the Beijing Military Area Command and 22 from the Armed Police General Hospital.

They will undertake search, rescue and medical treatment of the quake victims.

The Red Cross Society of China has sent 557 tents and 2,500 quilts to Wenchuan County.

The relief materials were allocated from the Red Cross' relief center in Chengdu, the provincial capital.

The Red Cross said it was sending a rescue team to the quake-hit areas to survey the situation.

The Sichuan branch of the Red Cross was organizing local people to move to open and safe places, and also joined relief work in the affected areas.

A senior Chinese seismologist Monday warned residents in earthquake-affected areas in Southwest China that aftershocks could be just as devastating as the main tremor.

(Xinhua)