Meanwhile, in the other SAR ... Thousands of Macau university and school students showed their support for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake last week. Public schools and government offices came to a standstill at 2.28pm on Tuesday, when residents stood in silence for three minutes to mourn the victims of the tragedy. Students at the University of Macau set up wish boards and donation boxes across the campus. There are 97 students from Sichuan province studying at the university and only one had returned home late last week. More than 470,000 patacas were collected in the first phase of the university fund-raising drive, with the money being donated to the Macau Red Cross. A university spokeswoman said everyone was 'shocked and distressed by the tragedy' and 'worried about the homeless fellows in Sichuan'. The student affairs section of the university offered psychological counselling to students in need. Thousands of public school students made wish cards for the victims carrying messages of support and hope. 'Be strong and keep fighting', 'We love you and wish you the best', 'Never far from our minds, we will do all we can to help' and 'Stay strong, we love you' were just some of the messages. Elise Lo, 14, of Coloane, who has family friends living in Sichuan province, said she was very scared at first because she had not heard anything about them. 'We finally heard that everyone was all right, and we all just started crying because it was such a big relief. Now we want to do all we can to help people rebuild their homes,' she said. Macau Water has donated equipment that will provide drinking water for up to 10,000 people a day in the disaster-hit area.