Torrents of muddy water gushed out of the lake throughout the day, sweeping through towns and villages in Sichuan province that were flattened by last month's devastating earthquake which left over 86,000 people dead or missing.

After a nervous few hours, the water in the lake fell below the top-alert level without causing any major flooding problems downstream.

With this news, Sichuan Communist Party chief Liu Qibao -- the highest ranking official in the province -- declared a "decisive victory" in the drainage campaign, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Tangjiashan lake was created when landslides blocked a river in a particularly remote and mountainous area of Sichuan during the May 12 earthquake.

Authorities had warned that 1.3 million quake survivors could be at risk if the unstable dam burst its banks, and China's military had led frantic efforts to drain the water in a controlled manner.

Those efforts included firing small missiles and using dynamite to clear boulders from the planned spillways -- measures implemented in recent days that finally cleared the channels enough for Tuesday's draining.

More than 250,000 people were also evacuated from the most at-risk areas over the past few weeks, while drills were conducted for the more than one million other people who faced having to flee their homes.

Throughout Tuesday, water flowed steadily out of the lake 50 times faster than it was coming in, Xinhua said -- a rate roughly the equivalent of two Olympic-sized swimming pools being drained every second.

In Mianyang, the major town on flatlands downstream, the flow of water passing through was greeted with much relief.

Thousands of people lined up above the banks of the river, which a day earlier had been almost completely dry, to watch the torrent of water that had built up to be roughly 500 metres (yards) wide.

"I have never seen so much water in the river... My home was always safe but my workplace was in the danger zone," He Jiayang, a Mianyang resident in her 40s, told AFP.

"In the beginning we were very afraid but not any more. The flood risk has passed. The government has handled this well."

For some, the operation was no cause for celebration, particularly for those who lived in the town of Beichuan, which was destroyed.

"It's really hard for me to take. Our city was so good and beautiful but now there's nothing left. My heart aches," said Zhu Yunyou, a 54-year-old farmer who lost his house in the earthquake.

Zhu spoke to AFP as he stood on a mountain ridge overlooking Beichuan and watched the water gush into the centre of the abandoned town.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) officials announced they had suspended operations of a key oil pipeline due to safety concerns while efforts to drain the lake accelerated, Xinhua said.

The operations were halted since the water flowing down from the quake lake would put pressure on the pipeline located 60 kilometres downstream from the body of water, said pipeline manager, Du Jingshui.

Supplies to the area would not be affected since the company had 20 days of reserves on hand, the company said.

Meanwhile, the State Grid announced power lines affected by the quake had been fully restored in Sichuan province and resumed normal operation mid-afternoon Tuesday, more than four weeks after the tragedy, Xinhua said.

Also on Tuesday, authorities found the bodies of 17 people who were on a military helicopter that crashed 11 days earlier while conducting quake relief efforts, according to Xinhua.

The Mi-171 transport helicopter, with its five crew and 13 people who were being evacuated, was found near the remote town of Yingxiu that was at the epicentre of the 8.0-magnitude quake.

State media initially reported that 19 people had been on board the craft but later said one person had not boarded. Another person believed on board was still missing.

Amid the immediate concerns of draining the lake, China has pressed on with helping the millions of people left homeless by the disaster.

Highlighting the large scale of the reconstruction effort, Xinhua said a new site for the county seat of Beichuan had been chosen, 35 kilometres (21 miles) from the original one in Qunshan.

More than 8,600 people out of Qunshan's population of 13,000 were killed.

The quake was the worst natural disaster to hit China in a generation, killing 69,146 people and leaving 17,516 others missing, according to the latest official toll.

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