Five bodies have been recovered but one more person is still missing from the three fishing boats that got stuck when a bridge collapsed in Taiwan.
According to the National Fire Agency of Taiwan, two of the bodies recovered from the collapse were Indonesian and one was Filipino, while the identities of the other two are yet to be determined. The 140-meter-long, 18-meter-high arched bridge at Nanfangao harbor in Yilan County, Taiwan collapsed at 9:30 a.m., causing an oil tanker to fall onto several fishing boats below and starting a fire.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen expressed his concern saying: "We hope everyone can be safely rescued in the shortest amount of time." Meanwhile, Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung said that aside from divers and the military, fishing vessels were helping in the search for the missing people.
Hours prior to the bridge's collapse, a typhoon swept across parts of the island. However, the collapse happened on a sunny weather so there was no clear indication if the storm played a role in the incident.
The military has deployed a floating platform to assist workers in removing debris and trying to extract two of the boats from under collapsed sections of the bridge, with the third boat already recovered the previous day. All the deceased are believed to be from the fishing boats.
Taiwan's official Central News Agency reported that 10 injured people were taken to hospitals, including the oil tanker's driver. The other nine injuries were Filipino and Indonesian fishermen. Several Filipinos and Indonesians are in Taiwan working on fishing boats due to better pay.
MAA Consultants, the firm that designed the bridge, claimed that it is the only single-span arch bridge in Taiwan supported by cables and the second single arch-cable steel bridge in the world.
