The captain of a cargo ship that rammed into a bridge over the Pearl River in Guangzhou, southern China on Thursday (Feb 22) morning has been arrested. At least one person is missing after the incident that sent vehicles hurtling into the water.
The Guangzhou bus company said one of its drivers was alone in his vehicle when it fell of the bridge. Rescue teams are on the scene but details of other casualties remain uncertain.
Emergency and police teams are managing traffic and investigating the incident, according to reports on mainland media.
Images shown on state broadcaster CCTV show the Lixinsha bridge in the city’s Nansha district fractured, with the empty ship apparently jammed beneath the structure. The vessel was on its way to Nansha from Foshan’s Nanhai district.
Beijing News reported that the ship’s captain has been arrested, citing a national legislature representative of the town.
Work to strengthen the bridge, which connects Guangzhou to other Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities like Zhongshan and Shenzhen, began in 2022 because of safety concerns.
But the city’s maritime safety administration reported repeated delays, extending the completion date for the anti-collision and strengthening works from August 2022 to the same month this year.
Nansha – at the southern tip of the city in Guangdong province – is seen as a key zone for technological development in the GBA, the government scheme to integrate 11 southern Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.
This article was first published on SCMP.