Images on CCTV showed an empty container barge lodged between two columns of the Lixinsha Bridge with part of the bridge’s two-lane road deck missing. - PHOTO: ANDREW19751110/X via The Straits Times/ANN
GUANGZHOU (Reuters): Two people were killed and three others missing after a barge collided with a bridge over a river in China’s Pearl River Delta region near the city of Guangzhou on Thursday (Feb 22), causing part of it to break off and some vehicles to plunge into the water, state-owned CCTV reported.
Five vehicles, including a motorbike, were involved in the accident. Two of the cars plunged into the river while the others fell onto the vessel, a preliminary investigation has found.
Rescue efforts are under way.
Chinese media reported that six divers were dispatched after a bus was among the vehicles to fall off the bridge.
The bus operator, Guangzhou Bus Company, said the driver of the bus was not contactable and confirmed that there were no passengers aboard the bus.
The Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration said in a statement on their WeChat social media account that the barge was travelling from the city of Foshan to a southern district of Guangzhou when it crashed into the bridge at 5.30am.
Images on CCTV showed an empty container barge lodged between two columns of the Lixinsha Bridge with part of the bridge’s two-lane road deck missing. All road traffic on the bridge was halted.
The authorities were investigating the cause of the accident and information about casualties was still being verified, the Guangzhou maritime administration said in its statement, advising ships and vehicles using the route to make detours.
Guangzhou, the capital of the prosperous southern Guangdong province near the mouth of the Pearl River, is one of China’s busiest maritime transportation and trading hubs. - Reuters
