A TOWERING arched bridge over a bay in eastern Taiwan collapsed yesterday, sending an oil tanker truck falling on to boats in the water below.
An air force helicopter, fishing vessels and more than 60 military personnel, including divers, were searching for possible victims.
Six people are believed to be trapped on one of the boats, the National Fire Agency said.
Interior minister Hsu Kuo-yung said about five people were feared to have been on the bridge when it collapsed.
Ten people were sent to hospitals, six of them with serious injuries.
The 460ft-long bridge collapsed at about about 9.30am in Nanfangao, a tiny but often-crowded Pacific coast fishing village.
The weather at the time was sunny, hours after a typhoon swept across parts of the island.
MEANWHILE, China’s military has shown off a new hypersonic ballistic nuclear missile believed to be capable of breaching all existing anti-missile shields deployed by the US and its allies.
The vehicle-mounted DF-17 was among weapons displayed yesterday in a massive military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese state.
Some analysts have called the missile a threat to regional stability because its speed allows far less time to determine whether to fire nuclear weapons in response.
Its use of multiple independently manoeuvrable re-entry vehicles to deliver warheads makes it far more difficult to detect and intercept.
ELSEWHERE, a man with a knife-like weapon has killed one person and wounded at least nine others at a shopping centre in central Finland, police said.
The attacker has also been wounded and is in custody after the assault in the town of Kuopio.
Police said they were forced to use a gun to stop the violence at the Herman shopping centre,which has been evacuated. Officers did not confirm if they had shot the suspect, and did not provide further details.
The conditions of the wounded, including the attacker, were not immediately available and police have not provided a possible motive.
FINALLY, North Korea and the US have agreed to resume nuclear negotiations this weekend following a months-long stalemate over the withdrawal of sanctions in exchange for disarmament, a senior North Korean diplomat said.
Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s first vice minister of foreign affairs, said the two nations will have preliminary contact on Friday before holding working-level talks on Saturday.
In a statement, Choe expressed optimism over the outcome of the meeting but did not say where it would take place.
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