Five workers have died after a railway bridge under construction collapsed in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, eastern China on Monday. The accident occurred at 5:46 pm when a 95-metre section of the Yuegang Bridge gave way unexpectedly while workers were on site. Emergency teams immediately responded, but the collapse claimed the lives of five people, including two rescued from the wreckage who later died from injuries.

The bridge, part of the Lianyungang–Shanghai railway line, was being built by China Railway 12th Bureau Group Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation. The collapse involved a tied-arch beam failure during construction. Local authorities coordinated rescue and recovery efforts, completing the operation on Tuesday morning after retrieving the missing workers.

The incident highlights safety concerns surrounding large-scale infrastructure projects in China. In recent years, fatal accidents have occurred at railway and construction sites, including a December 2024 collapse in Guangdong that killed 13 workers and a November 2024 train collision in Kunming that claimed 11 lives. Authorities have launched an investigation into the Yancheng collapse, though the cause of the failure has not yet been released.

The Yuegang Bridge project is part of China’s rapidly growing high-speed rail network, which aims to improve connectivity between northern Jiangsu and the eastern economic hub of Shanghai. State media reported that heavy machinery and emergency crews worked through debris to recover bodies, while CCTV images showed twisted sections of the unfinished bridge scattered on the ground.