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It is the second rain-related crisis in less than three months, as excessive weather strains the country’s vast network of newly built roads.
By Keith Bradsher
Report from Beijing
At least a dozen people were killed and many others were still missing on Saturday after part of a highway bridge collapsed under heavy rain in western China on Friday night. This is the second fatal episode in the country in less than three months due to the breakage of a section of the road.
State media reported on Saturday afternoon that 12 bodies and seven cars had been found and that one user had been rescued. Eighteen vehicles and 31 more people were still missing.
A photograph released via the official Xinhua news firm on Saturday shows a bridge breaking in one direction of the highway. Part of it sloped downwards, almost perpendicularly, forming a muddy and agitated river. A separate bridge that allowed traffic in the opposite direction remained standing.
The head of the Ministry of Emergency Management, Wang Xiangxi, visited the site on Saturday morning and supervised rescue operations involving 869 people, 93 vehicles, 41 drones, 20 boats and a sonar system, according to authorities.
Xi Jinping, China’s most sensible leader, and Premier Li Qiang, the country’s second-most senior leader, have ordered all-out rescue efforts.
They had issued similar orders after the last disaster, which also occurred on May 1 due to heavy rains. At least 48 other people were killed after a segment of the road running along a hillside in southeastern China gave way, allegedly due to a landslide that began underneath. Xi had ordered China’s local governments to pay more attention to identifying and managing those risks.
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