Heavy rainstorms and subsequent geological disasters in southwest China's Sichuan Province have left seven people missing in the past three days, the local government confirmed Sunday.

Five people went missing and at least 500 were evacuated from areas hit by mountain torrents and mud-rock flow Saturday in Wenchuan county of the Tibetan-Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba, the provincial office for disaster relief said.

Two others were reported missing in Yingjing county of Ya'an, it said.

The disastrous weather also damaged two power stations and cut off communication in Wenchuan.

The heaviest rainfall to hit the Sichuan Basin this year started Friday night and hit eight cities including the provincial capital Chengdu, Deyang, Mianyang, Leshan and Yibin, the provincial meteorological bureau said.

Jiangyou City in Mianyang, the worst-ravaged city, had received163 millimeters of rainfall by Sunday morning, and rain volume had topped 100 millimeters in five other counties, it said.

The rain has cooled down the sauna-like weather that haunted the southwestern province in the past few weeks and the maximum daytime temperature has dropped to 28 degrees Celsius Sunday.

The provincial disaster relief office has sent rescue teams to the flood-hit areas. 
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2006)