Special teams are in charge of digging out millions of yuan buried in rubble in Sichuan province. One team in Beichuan has found a large sum of money, and returned it to the government.

Special teams are in charge of digging out millions of yuan buried in rubble in Sichuan province. One team in Beichuan has found a large sum of money, and returned it to the government.

These are the ruins of the biggest bank in Beichuan county. The nine-floor building collapsed in the earthquake and left a large amount of money buried in the debris.

Soldiers have worked here for six days and nights. Delayed by many aftershocks, they finally excavated the first batch of money on Wednesday. It was only the tip of the iceberg. The money of three local banks had also been saved in the building.

The rescue team leader said they would try their best to dig all of the money, and estimated the operation would take at least three hours if everything ran smoothly.

The team found the first safe, and it was opened under the surveillance of the staff from local bank. Rescue team members said that they felt proud of their efforts.

More safes were found one after the other in the following three hours. These large safes contain more than six million yuan. The money will be given back to the government on Thursday.

(CCTV May 23, 2008)