Footage circulating on Chinese social media websites has captured the moment a cargo ship in southern China caused a bridge to collapse, sending vehicles tumbling into the water below as well as onto the vessel itself.
Authorities in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, said the empty cargo ship struck a pillar of the Lixinsha Bridge at around 5:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, destroying a section of the bridge.
Four vehicles and one electric scooter were involved in the incident, according to a statement released by the local government. Two vehicles fell into the water, and three landed on the ship.
As of 10 a.m. local time, two people were confirmed dead, two had been rescued and three were unaccounted for, the district government said. One crew member was injured.
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The Lixinsha Bridge was built over the Hongqili Waterway, which leads to the mouth of the Pearl River, inland from Hong Kong and Macau. Guangzhou and the nearby cities of Dongguan and Shenzhen, are some of China’s busiest shipping and manufacturing hubs, including for high tech goods.
Guangzhou’s maritime authority said the waterway was closed to all traffic until further notice. Vehicles in the area were rerouted.
The city’s Emergency Management Bureau, whose personnel were pictured at the scene, did not answer calls from Newsweek seeking comment.
In a statement later on Thursday, the city’s public transport operator confirmed that one of its buses was on the Lixinsha Bridge at the time of the collapse. The vehicle’s only occupant was its driver, whose condition was unknown, the company said.
An image shared widely on Chinese social media website Weibo and other platforms showed emergency responders standing on the cargo ship near the wreckage of the green bus and at least one other vehicle. Sections of the broken bridge surface were scattered around.
In footage taken by bystanders, one or more burst pipes can be seen sending water gushing down onto the empty vessel, which authorities said was traveling to Guangzhou from the nearby city of Foshan.
Local authorities said they had detained the vessel’s owner, who was not named, and were continuing to investigate the incident.
No victims were named.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV said the city had previously considered plans to build collision guards around four of the bridge’s pillars.
Public transport authorities recommended the additional safety measures in October 2021, but work was repeatedly delayed from the initial planned April 2022 start, to March and then August 2023, and finally to August this year.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.