Strong rain has affected more than 508,000 people in southwest China's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, local authorities said Wednesday.

Strong rain has affected more than 508,000 people in southwest China's Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, local authorities said Wednesday. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

The downpours have been battering most parts of Sichuan since Monday evening. Precipitation in some parts of the province reached 500 to 600 mm as of 7 p.m Wednesday, while water levels in 8 small and medium-sized rivers in Sichuan rose above the warning level, according to official statistics.

The heavy rain has left seven people dead and 48 missing as of 7 p.m. Wednesday, according to the provincial flood control headquarters.

Local government authorities have relocated about 36,800 people due to the possibility of geological disasters triggered by the rain.

Three bridges have collapsed since Monday evening due to rain-triggered floods in the cities of Jiangyou and Deyang, the headquarters said.

Twelve people have been reported missing and six vehicles were confirmed to have fallen into a river in Jiangyou after the Panjiang Bridge collapsed, according to the local government.

Train services on the Baoji-Chengdu Railway, a key north-south railway line in west China that links the city of Baoji in northwest China's Shaanxi Province with Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, were resumed on Wednesday, according to the Chengdu Railway Bureau.

Torrential rain has also pounded Wenchuan County, the epicenter of an earthquake on May 12, 2008 that left 87,000 people dead or missing.

More than 80,000 people in Wenchuan was affected by the rain-triggered flash floods and landslides, and more than 10,000 people were forced to relocate, said the county government.

Services on the No. 213 National Highway that links Wenchuan and Dujiangyan were resumed on Wednesday after it had been severely damaged by flooding, according to local traffic police.

More than 2,000 people who had been trapped in a tunnel on Dujiangyan-Wenchuan Expressway have been rescued and relocated, the emergency management office of Wenchuan said on Wednesday evening.