චීන පාලම් අනතුර : මුදවාගැනීමේ කටයුතු තවදුරටත් (Update)

China bridge collapse : All-out search, rescue efforts afoot (Update)

More than 1,000 firemen and armed police have been deployed to conduct search and rescue work on Sunday after a highway bridge collapse in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The bridge, located in Zhashui County in Shangluo City, partially collapsed around 8:40 on Friday due to a sudden downpour and flash floods, according to the provincial publicity department.

The accident has killed 12 people and left 31 others missing so far.

A total of 17 cars and eight trucks plunged into the Jinqian River below the bridge based on the initial investigation. As of Saturday noon, serve cars had been recovered and 12 people found dead, with one person rescued, said the provincial Party committee.

The rescuers are using heavy machines to clear the debris around the piers of the bridge to reduce the pressure on them.

Despite the drop in the water level of the river and the favorable weather on Sunday, the rapids brought difficulties to the rescue work.

The highway administration department has also dispatched workers to check the safety of the rest of the bridge which did not collapse in the accident to lay a foundation for the reopening of the bridge in the coming days.

At 05:00 on Sunday, the rescuers found two vehicles which sank to the river during the accident and two of them were pinpointed four kilometers downriver from the accident site.

The rescuers used a crane and ropes to pull the two vehicles out of the river and found no victims inside them.

Local authorities have sent 62 medical workers and 30 ambulances to the site to conduct medical rescue work and opened green lanes at three designated hospitals to treat the injured in time.

"We have set up a medical team composed of medical workers from the provincial, municipal and county-level hospitals immediately and mobilized 36 personnel from the departments of emergency medicine, intensive care medicine, orthopedics and psychology to form a medical expert group. The experts from the provincial, municipal and county-level hospitals will join hands to take targeted treatment measures," said Ma Jianqi, director of Shangluo Municipal Health Commission.

Meanwhile, the local government is conducting epidemic surveillance and prevention and monitoring sanitation of drinking water, food safety risks and vectors to prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases.

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