China confirms deaths of police officers in Haiti quake

Beijing - China confirmed Sunday that the bodies of all eight of its police officers buried under a collapsed building in the Haiti earthquake had been found, state media reported.

The Ministry of Public Security said the bodies were retrieved by the efforts of a Chinese rescue team, the country's peacekeeping force in Haiti and several foreign rescue teams.

Four of the victims were officers of China's peacekeeping force in Haiti and the rest were in a team sent by the ministry to Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, for peacekeeping consultations, according to the ministry.

The eight were meeting UN officials in the headquarters of the UN Stabilization Mission in Port-au-Prince when the quake struck at about 4:50 pm Tuesday.

The team of consultants had just arrived in Haiti the same day.

"The eight comrades who sacrificed their lives during the Haiti quake are outstanding representatives of the 2 million Chinese police force members," the ministry said. "They are the models for public security departments across the country to learn from."

A total of 142 Chinese police peacekeepers are deployed in Haiti.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304187,china-confirms-deaths-of-police-officers-in-haiti-quake.html.