"Two Il-76 transport aircraft took off at 17.17 and 17.30 [13:17 and 13:30 GMT]. They will deliver multi-person tents with a total weight of about 60 tons. These are the eleventh and twelfth flights of Russian Emergency Situations Ministry planes to China," a ministry spokesman said.
He also said Russian planes had so far delivered 232 tons of humanitarian aid to China since the quake hit the region. A Mi-26 transport helicopter has also been working in the area, making 52 flights and transferring 473 tons of cargo. The spokesman added that Russian doctors had rendered assistance to almost 1,500 of those people injured by the quake.
The death toll from the earthquake has exceeded 69,000, a spokesman for the country's State Council said on Monday. Chinese authorities expect the final death toll to exceed 80,000.
The quake, measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale according to the China Seismological Bureau, was the worst to hit the country in more than three decades, and affected eight provinces, with Sichuan suffering the bulk of the devastation.
Chinese soldiers have been working nonstop to dig a channel to funnel water away from the so-called Tangjiashan Lake, one of the largest of the numerous 'quake lakes' created after heavy rain and mudslides blocked rivers and waterways. The lake is situated near the mountain of the same name in Sichuan.
Around 200,000 people have been evacuated and more than a million told to prepare to leave at any moment after the 'quake lake' was reported to be in danger of bursting its banks.
