Bridge collapse in southern China kills 11

USPA News - Eleven people were killed Saturday and more than a dozen were injured when a bridge under construction collapsed in southern China, state-run media reported on Sunday. Four officials were later arrested for allowing the project to continue after being ordered to stop.

The accident happened at about 1 p.m. local time on Saturday when the stone arch bridge on the side of a mountain near the village of Liangping, close to Gaozhou City in Guangdong province, came down. The collapse trapped approximately 27 people, though it was not immediately clear if all of them were working on the bridge. The state-run Xinhua news agency said 5 bodies were recovered at the scene while the remaining 22 were rescued and rushed to hospital, where six of them later died, raising the number of fatalities to 11. At least two of the injured remained in a serious condition on Sunday but the others were not believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries. The construction of the bridge was taking place illegally after the local government had ordered the village to halt the project last month, Xinhua reported. It said four people were arrested after Saturday`s accident, including the village committee director, a township official, and two people from the construction contractor.