Chinese search and rescue team leaves for quake-hit Nepal

Beijing: China on Sunday dispatched a 62-member search and rescue team for Nepal where a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake has killed more than 1,200 people, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

The group, including six sniffer dogs and carrying rescue and medical equipment, was set to reach the capital Kathmandu by midday to "carry out humanitarian rescue", the report said.

Forty of the rescuers on board the chartered flight were from the 38th Group Army of the People`s Liberation Army.

Governments around the world have offered support to Nepal after the deadly quake on Saturday, the impoverished Himalayan nation`s worst disaster in more than 80 years.