The accident resulted in two deaths and one injury.
A horrific accident occurred in Guangzhou on Thursday morning when a cargo ship hit a bridge, causing five vehicles, including a bus, to plunge into the Pearl River.Unfortunately, two people were reportedly killed, one injured and three missing South China Morning Post.
Dramatic footage broadcast on CCTV captured the disaster, showing a broken section of the bridge under which the ship was stuck. Fortunately, the ship was empty of cargo at the time of impact. Details of the cause of the incident remain unclear. The accident, which reportedly occurred around 5:30 a.m. local time, disrupted the morning commute and sent shockwaves throughout the city. News portal.
At around 5:30 a.m. on February 22, a cargo ship crashed into the Lixinsha Bridge on the Pearl River in Wanqingsha Town, Nansha District, Guangzhou City. The entire bridge was washed away and many vehicles fell into the river.
This cargo ship is traveling from… pic.twitter.com/YY3o1sQRUc
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) February 22, 2024
Rescue operations are currently underway and authorities are desperately searching for the missing persons. The bridge is reportedly due for an upgrade, but plans for improvements have been delayed on three separate occasions, raising questions about potential infrastructure issues that led to the tragedy.
The captain of the cargo ship, which sailed from Nanhai District, Foshan City to Nansha, has been arrested, the Beijing News reported, citing local congress representatives.
Strengthening work on the bridge, which connects Guangzhou to other Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities such as Zhongshan and Shenzhen, began in 2022 due to safety concerns. But the city’s transportation department reported that the completion date for the crash reinforcement project has been repeatedly pushed back, from August 2022 to the same month this year.
Nansha, located at the southern end of the city in Guangdong Province, is seen as a key area for technological development in the Greater Bay Area, with the government planning to integrate 11 cities in southern China into an economic powerhouse.
