THE bodies of two Filipinos were retrieved early Wednesday from under the collapsed Nanfangao Bridge in Taiwan, according to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (Meco).
Relatives confirmed that two of the three missing Filipinos were inside one of the fishing boats pinned by the bridge. Three Indonesians also remained missing, said Meco Director for Administration Gerry De Belen.
He was quoted as saying the authorities are still engaged in retrieval operation. “They are finding it difficult to lift half of the fishing vessel that is still submerged. That part was hit worst by the structure.”
MECO head Lito Banayo, in a text message to the Business Mirror said “two Filipinos pronounced dead after bodies were retrieved this dawn, some 19 hours after the accident happened.”
“One other Filipino still has to be retrieved. Yesterday, four injured Filipinos were discharged from the hospital after treatment. One other with wound.”
Banayo said he is in an urgent meeting and could not be reached by telephone.
Earlier on Wednesday, Banayo said in a radio interview that one of the fatalities’ bodies was found past midnight while the other was found at about 4 a.m. He said rescuers were still searching for a third Filipino, a day after the accident in Yilan where five others were also injured.
Four of the survivors have been released from hospital after being treated for minor injuries; the fifth survivor remained in hospital with fractures.
A video tape of the event taken by Taiwan’s Military News Agency dramatically shows the 140-meter long single-arch bridge tumbling down onto at least three fishing boats as a petrol tanker that was crossing also plunged into the water in Nanfangao, on Taiwan’s east coast.
The Ministry of the Interior’s National Fire Agency (NFA) had initially said that the oil tanker that passed the bridge on Tuesday had caused the collapse, with the truck falling onto the fishing boats underneath.
The steel arch supporting the bridge from above remains intact, but frayed steel strands or “hangers” could also be seen from the video.
As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the NFA said that of the 10 people requiring hospitalization, six were Filipinos, three were Indonesians, and one, the truck driver, was a Taiwanese citizen.
Up to six fishermen are still believed to be trapped beneath the bridge inside their fishing boats. Divers have reportedly heard knocking sounds apparently coming from inside the boats, and Marines have been dispatched to the scene to aid with the rescue.
The initial assessment by authorities is that its vertical suspension cables, known as “hangers,” snapped, causing the bridge’s deck to plummet six stories below. After the collapse, badly frayed cables could be seen strewn across the deck of the bridge.
Sung Yu-chi, dean of the School of Engineering at National Taipei University of Technology, was cited by the Liberty Times as saying that one possible reason is that the bridge is close to the ocean, thus the salt content of the air is very high.
Prolonged exposure to salinity could cause the steel cables to rust, weakening their integrity, according to Sung. Another possibility could be long-term vibrations caused by wind, resulting in fatigue and causing their anchors to loosen, said Sung.
Image credits: Taiwan's Military News Agency via AP