China Bridge Collapse: At Least 48 Dead as Vice-Premier Dispatched to Oversee Recovery Efforts

Beijing: China has sent a vice premier to oversee recovery efforts and urged better safety measures after a highway collapse killed at least 48 people in  country’s mountainous south.  official Xinhua News Agency on Friday said Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing h “stressed sparing no effort in carrying out rescue and relief work.”

dispatch of Zhang, who is also a member of one of ruling Communist Party's leing bodies, illustrates concern over a possible public backlash over disaster, latest in a series of dely infrastructure failures.

References to collapse, which left a huge gash in side of a cliff over which  highway was built, largely disappeared from public media on Friday.

Zhang's presence follows calls by President Xi Jinping and Communist Party's number two official, Premier Li Qiang, to swiftly handle tragedy. About 30 or victims were hospitalised. Three people were being identified by DNA samples, though it wasn’t clear wher y h died as well.

One side of four-lane highway in  city of Meizhou gave way about 02:00 on Wednesday after a month of heavy rains in Guangdong province.

Twenty-three vehicles plunged into a deep ravine, some bursting into flames and sending up thick clouds of smoke.

“Lessons should be drawn from collapse and more should be done to improve disaster prevention and response capabilities, ensuring safety of people’s lives and property and overall social stability,” Xinhua quoted vice premier as saying.

Zhang also called for closer monitoring of wear patterns during annual summer flooding season that strikes large swas of central and sourn China and for an improvement in early warning systems and response times.

No official word has been issued about any arrests or investigation into collapse, which followed unusually intense wear, including hailstorms and an April 27 torno that struck Guangdong's capital of Guangzhou, killing five and injuring 33.

More heavy rain is forecast, with many flights heed south through region cancelled or delayed.

Over 56 centimetres (22 inches) of rain has fallen in past four weeks in county where roway collapsed, more than four times as much as last year. Some villages in Meizhou were flooded in early April, and city has received ditional rain in recent days.

Ministry of Emergency Management also issued an urgent circular urging officials to “draw lessons from ro collapse and take concrete measures to prevent similar accidents.”

highway section collapsed on first day of a five-day May Day holiday, when many Chinese travel at home and abro.