Empty river barge hits bridge in China, at least two dead

The accident occurred in Guangzhou, in the south of the country, on Thursday morning. Three people are still missing, according to the local maritime affairs bureau.

At least two people died and three remain missing after a collision on Thursday  in China between a river barge and a road bridge, reports AFP. The shock caused a section in the middle of the bridge to collapse, authorities announced.

The empty barge was traveling between Foshan and Guangzhou, provincial capital of southern China's Guangdong, when it hit the bridge around 5:30 a.m. (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. GMT), the business bureau said Canton Maritime Services. The ship hit a pillar of the Lixinsha Bridge, causing the deck of the structure to rupture and five vehicles to fall, either into the water or onto the boat below, he said in a press release.

According to the latest report provided by the office, two people were rescued, two died, one crew member was slightly injured and three people are still missing.

Dozens of rescuers

The Guangzhou Maritime Affairs Bureau said the cause of the accident was being investigated and rescue operations were continuing.

According to the Chinese channel CCTV, dozens of rescuers were dispatched to the scene, including some who came as reinforcements from the neighboring metropolis of Shenzhen.

Baltimore's nightmare returns: barge against bridge in Oklahoma

A barge crashed into a bridge in the US state of Oklahoma. This is what local authorities reported, specifying that the accident caused no casualties and that traffic was first blocked then reopened after safety checks.

According to what the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (Okdot) posted on its X account, US Highway 59 was closed on the Arkansas River, south of Sollisaw, due to the collision. The causes of the accident are currently unknown. Just last Tuesday, a merchant ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse, an accident in which six construction workers remain missing.

On May 26, 2002, in the same Arkansas River, also in Oklahoma, 14 people died and eleven were injured when another bridge collapsed, causing ten vehicles to fall into the water after a tugboat pushing two barges struck a pylon of the structure along the river. Highway I 40, the most important highway in the Midwestern state. In this case, it was an illness of the captain of the tugboat which caused the accident.

No injuries were reported on the highway or the barge, according to state patrol officials. The bridge crosses the Arkansas River where it enters the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir, which is not far from Oklahoma’s border with Arkansas.

The highway reopened to traffic around 4 p.m.

“Engineers inspected the structure and found it safe to reopen,” the Oklahoma Department of Transportation said in an email.