Published by: World Tibet Network News Wednesday, January 21, 1998

BEIJING, Jan 20 (AFP) - The Tibetan government has sent a medical team to the area hardest hit by the worst snow in decades, China's official Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.

The report said the 26-member team and 660,000 yuan (90,000 dollars) worth of medicine were sent to Nagqu County by four hospitals -- two run by the Tibet Autonomous Region government, one by the Chinese army and one by the Chinese police.

Since September, Nagqu and three other counties have been hit by heavy

snowstorms. Xinhua said many victims were suffering snow blindness, frostbite and other ailments.

By mid-December new snowfalls along the Himalayas had cut communications between a number of counties, towns and villages in the four counties, where 400,000 people live.