Bridge Collapse Kills 22 in China

A bridge under construction in Hunan Province collapsed yesterday, killing 22 people and leaving 44 missing. Workers were removing scaffolding from the 880-foot-long span when it crumbled into the Tuo River. Located in the ancient city of Fenghuang and designed as a tourist attraction, the bridge had four decorative stone arches. Most of the workers on the bridge when it fell were local farmers.

In a report last year, the Chinese government said that over 6,000 Chinese bridges are dangerous, due to serious structural problems. China should "learn a lesson from the Mississippi bridge and accelerate the inspection of unsafe bridges," said a government official. (More bridge collapse stories.)