Three rains are forecast to sweep earthquake-hit southwest China's Sichuan, southern part of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and Chongqing municipality in the next seven days, the China Meteorological Administration on Tuesday.

Light and moderate rain would hit much of the regions on Tuesday and Wednesday. The southern part of Sichuan jolted severely in the earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale Monday was likely to see heavy rainfalls and even thunderstorms, possibly increasing difficulties of the disaster relief work, said the national meteorological observatory.

The latest weather report added that another two moderate showers were forecast in the regions on Saturday and next Monday.

Yang Guiming, chief forecaster of the Central Meteorological Station (CMS) warned that lingering rains and thunderstorms may trigger geological disasters like landslides as rocks and the earth were pretty loose after the earthquake.

According to latest data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the 7.8-magnitude quake has killed 9,219 people in eight affected provinces and municipality of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Shanxi, Guizhou, Hubei and Chongqing. The quake, which jolted Wenchuan County of Sichuan at 2:28 PM Monday, has also leveled some 500,000 rooms in the affected areas.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2008)