BEIJING, CHINA - THE Malaysian Consulate in Kunming has sought the help of the Sichuan local government to trace a group of 26 Malaysian tourists who have not been contactable since Monday's massive earthquake that hit south-western Sichuan province.

'The Chinese authorities set up a special team this morning to look for foreign tourists. We are working with them on this,' Consul-General Ayauf Bachi told Bernama on Wednesday.

He said the consulate was contacted on Tuesday by Ipoh-based Golden Dragon Tours, which had arranged the trip for the mostly women group, half of whom were elderly.

The oldest in the group is believed to be in her nineties.

On the fate of the estimated 300 Malaysians in Sichuan, Mr Ayauf said those contacted by the consulate and the Malaysian Association of Sichuan were safe. 'Those that we know are safe. We are still monitoring but we are very hopeful that all are well,' he said.

The Sichuan foreign affairs office said on Tuesday there have been no reports of foreign casualties.

The Malaysian tourists arrived in Sichuan on May 8 and was supposed to depart for home on May 16. They had visited Jiuzhaiguo, a Unesco-listed nature reserve, and had stopped over in Maoxian for lunch, their last known whereabout.

Maoxian lies less than 50km from Wenchuan, the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake.

TAIWANESE DEATHS

Two Taiwanese, including a three-year-old boy, were killed by the quake and 14 others could not be contacted in southwest China, officials and media said on Wednesday.

Tourist Wang Min-chuan, 56, fell to his death on Tuesday as he was being rescued from a cable car stranded in mid-air over Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, since the quake struck on Monday, an official at the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) said here.

Ten other people who were also trapped in the 50m high cable car system were brought to safety.

Meanwhile, a group of 14 Taiwanese tourists travelling in Sichuan could not be contacted, he added. The semi-official SEF is in charge of civilian exchanges with the mainland in the absence of official contacts between Beijing and Taipei.

According to Chinese state media, a three-year-old Taiwanese boy was also killed while two others were slightly injured in the quake.- AFP