1st Ld-Writethru: Three missing, five injured in east China bridge collapse
Xinhua, September 11, 2016 Adjust font size:
Three workers went missing and five were injured when a bridge in east China's Jiangxi Province collapsed on Sunday while it was being dismantled.
The collapse happened around 9:17 a.m. in Taihe County of Jiangxi over the Ganjiang River.
Three of eight workers fell into the river and remain unaccounted for, according to the local government.
"I was driving an excavator when the floor of the bridge suddenly collapsed. I lost consciousness after the fall," said Hu Qihua, one of the five injured workers.
Two of the injured workers, Shan Yongkun, 27 and Huang Yong, 32, have suffered multiple bone fractures and remain in critical condition.
More than 400 police and rescuers are looking for the three missing workers.
The 828-meter-long bridge was completed in the early 1990s. An inspection in December 2012 suggested it should be repaired. Workers had been dismantling the bridge structures since August this year.
The cause of the incident is under investigation. Endi