At least 12 people are reported to have died and dozens of others are missing after a bridge collapsed amid heavy rain in China’s northwestern Shaanxi province on Saturday.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, “a sudden heavy rainstorm and flash floods” caused the bridge on Danning highway in southern Shaanxi to partially collapse into the river below around 9pm on Friday.
Twelve people had been confirmed dead as of Saturday afternoon, CCTV said. About 31 others and some 18 vehicles were still unaccounted for.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out rescue efforts, state news agency Xinhua reported.
“The top priority is to fully engage in emergency rescue efforts, make every possible effort to search for the missing persons, minimise casualties to the greatest extent possible, and properly manage the aftermath, including comforting the families of those affected,” Xi was quoted as saying.
He also urged emergency workers to “meticulously inspect surrounding safety hazards, and rigorously prevent secondary disasters”.
Emphasising that China had entered its critical flood season of late July to early August, Xi called on all relevant departments to fulfil their responsibilities in disaster monitoring and prevention.
Wang Xiangxi, China’s emergency management minister, led a working group to the scene to guide the rescue work on Saturday morning, according to an official WeChat post from his ministry.
CCTV also reported that more than 700 personnel and dozens of vehicles, boats and drones had been deployed to carry out rescue operations.
The collapsed bridge lies in the city of Shangluo, on the southern slopes of the Qinling mountains.
Authorities in Shangluo had closed many roads to regulate traffic amid floods caused by continued rainfall, with reports of at least one road cave-in, the report added.
Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily said provincial and local police estimated that 25 vehicles had fallen from the bridge, carrying some 43 people in all.
According to Xinhua, the finance and emergency management ministries have “urgently” allocated 260 million yuan (US$35.8 million) to support emergency rescue and disaster relief efforts for regions including Shaanxi and neighbouring Sichuan province.
The Shangluo weather office has forecast widespread thunderstorms over the next 24 hours, with heavy showers of up to 30mm (about 1.2 inches) per hour in some areas including Zhashui county, where the incident happened.
Residents said the Jinqian River below the bridge had begun to rise on Friday afternoon. After the bridge collapsed, a man seen shouting for help was pulled up by residents with the help of a rope, state-backed news site China.org.cn reported.
An eye witness told Hongxing News, a digital arm of Chengdu Economic Daily, that he had seen a small car floating in the river. His own vehicle was stopped by locals waving flashlights, asking him to turn around as the bridge ahead had collapsed and several cars fallen into the swollen river.
Seven vehicles had been recovered as of Saturday afternoon.
The incident comes as wide swathes of northern and southwestern China grapple with torrential rain and flooding, in a continued onslaught of extreme weather nationwide.
As of 2am on Saturday, more than 30 people had been reported missing and more than 40 houses damaged due to flash floods caused by heavy rains in Hanyuan county, in mountainous southwestern Sichuan, another CCTV report said.
The Shaanxi incident is China’s second deadly infrastructure collapse caused by rainfall and flooding in recent months.
In early May, nearly 50 people died after a section of a mountainside highway collapsed in southern Guangdong province following days of heavy rain.
