Six feared trapped as bridge collapses
TAIPEI: A bridge collapsed into a harbour in northeastern Taiwan on Tuesday, injuring ten people as it crushed several fishing boats, with six crew feared trapped, authorities said.
Hundreds of rescuers scrambled to use cranes, an excavator and other equipment to free the boats, while divers scoured the waters for those trapped.
“The bridge collapsed at around 9:30 am while an oil tanker vehicle was on it, setting the vehicle on fire,” said Shih I Chun, the secretary to the mayor of the port town of Suao, the site of the collapse.
“We feared that some fishermen might be trapped in the boats.”
The national fire agency said most of the ten injured were foreign fishermen, and six boat crew were feared to have been trapped.
Authorities have set up an emergency centre and the military said marines and the navy were helping with the rescue efforts. “Saving life is the priority,” Taiwan Premier Su Tsengchang said in a post on Facebook. “I will ask related authorities to make all efforts for the rescue.”
The bridge, which carries traffic over the busy fishing port, damaged three fishing boats and two vehicles, including the oil tanker, when it collapsed, two officials said, though the reason was not immediately clear.
A tourist site dubbed the “lovers’ bridge”, it was built in 1998 and its structure was reinforced in 2018, Taiwan’s official Central News Agency said.
Late on Monday, typhoon Mitag, packing maximum winds of 162 kph, swept past northeastern Taiwan, injuring 12 people. TORONTO: The Canadian edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) in Toronto’s historic Distillery District came to a splashy end on Sunday with authors, such as travel writer Pico Iyer, Nepaleseorigin author Manjushree Thapa and Madhur Jaffrey who has taken Indian cuisine global with her cookbooks, making memorable appearances.
The three-day affair, which concluded on Sunday, was a success with multiple events sold out. “We had a lot of enthusiasm and affirmation of bringing the festival to Toronto. We were pleasantly surprised at the mood and vibe and people were very positive,” said executive director Srinka Wallia.
Indian parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor, who was also present at the event, welcomed t he addit i on of t he JLF t o Toronto’s cultural landscape as an event to enhance India’s image abroad. “One of things we have to appreciate is that this kind of things take India to the world in a very different way from, let’s say, a ‘sarkari’ festival of India or a Bollywood film festival,” he said.
India’s high commissioner to Canada Vikas Swarup was among the early proponents of getting the JLF to Canada. “This is a platform which was made in India, but speaks to the world.”
This is part of the global expansion of India’s premier literary brand, from its early outposts in Boulder, Colorado and London, to New York and Dublin, to it moving into Adelaide and then Doha last December.