A newly opened bridge in south-west China collapsed on Tuesday, sending concrete slabs and dust into the mountainside and water below. No casualties were reported.
The partial collapse of the Hongqi Bridge, located in the mountainous Sichuan province, occurred after a landslide. Authorities had closed the 758-metre-long structure on Monday due to cracks appearing on nearby roads.
The bridge forms part of a national highway linking Sichuan to Tibet, running through a seismically active region that was devastated by the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which killed nearly 70,000 people.
Construction of the Hongqi Bridge was completed earlier this year, according to a social media post by contractors Sichuan Road and Bridge Group. In recent decades, China has pursued a construction boom in its most mountainous areas, connecting towns that once took days to travel between.
