Hundreds of rescuers are involved in a desperate search for some 20 vehicles missing after a highway bridge in China collapse during torrential rains, killing at least 11 people.
Chinese president Xi Jinping has been briefed on the operation and demanded “all-out efforts” from rescuers to find any survivors. China’s national fire and rescue authority said it had dispatched a team involving over 850 officials as well as 90 vehicles, 20 boats and 41 drones to join the search.
The highway bridge in Shangluo, a city in the northwestern Shaanxi province, collapse at around 8.40pm local time on Friday evening, sending an estimated 25 vehicles plunging into the swollen river below.
Authorities said 11 bodies had been recovered from five of those vehicles as of Saturday morning, but as the day wore on Xinhua news agency reported that there had been no more cars recovered, and an estimated 30 people are still missing, feared dead.
Pictures released by state media showed a section of the bridge snapped and folded down at an almost 90-degree angle into the rushing brown water below.
According to AFP, one witness told state media he had approached the bridge but other drivers started “yelling at me to brake and stop the car”.
“A truck in front of me didn’t stop and fell into the water,” he said.
Mr Xi urged local authorities to take responsibility during a critical period for flood control in the region, ordering them to enhance monitoring and early warning systems.
Extreme rains have brought flooding to large swathes of western and southwestern China in recent days, an area that is particularly prone to landslides due to its mountainous landscapes and the powerful rivers that run through the region.
Hubei city’s Three Gorges Dam, China’s largest, was put on high alert last week after dozens of rivers breached their banks and flooded townships.
At least six people have been reported dead in nearby Chongqing after flooding in a dozen districts and counties since Thursday, raising the water levels in 29 rivers.
In Sichuan province, to the southwest, another 30 people were missing and around 40 houses destroyed in flooding and storms on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
Sichuan’s hardest-hit Hanyuan county has seen both roads and communications infrastructure damaged or destroyed, complicating rescue efforts, and teams had been working since dawn to restore connectivity and clear debris from highways.
From record-breaking heatwaves to unprecedented rainfall, China has been facing increasing numbers of extreme weather events in recent years, testing the country’s ability to cope with the impact of the climate crisis.
Almost a year’s worth of rain pounded a small town in Henan on Tuesday. It recorded 606.7mm (24 inches) of rainfall in Dafengying over a 24 hour-period, the most anywhere in China, according to national weather forecasters. That compares with the average annual rainfall of 800mm in the area.
Changing rainfall patterns coincide with a dramatic decline in the country’s economic expansion, which in past decades has seen China build a huge network of motorways, high-speed railways and airports across even the country’s most remote districts.
The economic slowdown means officials and industries are cutting corners to try and continue expanding this network, leading to a proliferation of poor-quality infrastructure and poor safety supervision.