Two people were killed after a barge collided with a bridge over a waterway in China's Pearl River Delta near Guangzhou city, causing part of the bridge to break off, plunging vehicles into the water, Chinese state media reported on Thursday.
The Guangzhou Maritime Safety Administration said in a statement on their WeChat social media account the barge was travelling from Foshan city to a southern district of Guangzhou, when it crashed into the bridge at 5:30 a.m. in the Hongqili Waterway.
Images on state-owned China Central Television (CCTV) showed an empty container barge lodged between two columns of the Lixinsha Bridge with part of the bridge's two-lane road deck missing. All road traffic on the bridge was halted.
Four vehicles and an electric motorbike fell off the bridge. Two vehicles, which included a bus, plunged into the water and three other vehicles ended up on the barge, CCTV said. The bus was carrying only its driver. It was not immediately clear if the driver survived.
Two people died from the incident, one crew member was injured and two others rescued, state media said, with three more still missing.
City authorities have sent emergency and rescue personnel, including six divers and salvage vessels, to the scene, local media reported.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the accident, and information about casualties was still being verified, the Guangzhou maritime administration said in its statement. It also advised ships and vehicles using the route to make detours.
