Emergency crews are searching for survivors after a bridge collapsed overnight in China, killing at least 29 people.
China Central Television broadcast images from the scene in Hunan's Fenghuang county, showing rescue workers searching through massive piles of rubble, using bulldozers to push through the tangle of stone, concrete and rebar.
At least 86 people were rescued, including 22 who were injured when the 42-metre high bridge -- which spanned the Tuo River -- went down.
CTV's Beijing Bureau Chief Steve Chao told Â鶹´«Ã½net that workers were combing through the wreckage.
He said the bridge was brand new and hadn't even been opened yet. It was scheduled to open later in the month, and workers were busy removing scaffolding from the structure when it collapsed. An estimated 123 workers were at the site at the time of the collapse.
Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered an investigation into the collapse of the bridge, according to reports.
Villagers lined the banks of the river, awaiting news of loved ones believed to be missing in the wreckage.
Most of the workers on the project were local farmers, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
"I was riding a bike with my husband and we had just passed under the bridge and were about 50 metres away when it collapsed," a witness, who only gave her surname, Wu, told The Associated Press.
"There was a huge amount of dust that came up and didn't clear for about 10 minutes."
Local safety officials said the bridge was designed by the Hunan Huagang Transportation Design Institute in the provincial capital of Changsha.
The US$1.6 million project was being carried out by the Fengda company based in western Hunan province, AP reports.
The contractor for the project was reported to be the state-owned Hunan Road and Bridge Construction (Group) Ltd. Co., or RBC.
Chao said the Chinese government estimates there are about 6,300 bridges that are in a potentially dangerous state in China -- similar numbers to those estimated in the U.S.
The Chinese government has been working over the past seven years to improve the state of its bridges, and has repaired about 7,000 other structures in that period.
The government has now come out strongly to say it will repair the remaining 6,300 bridges still considered at risk.
On Tuesday, the China Daily newspaper quoted Xiao Rucheng, secretary general of China's Institute of Bridge and Structural Engineering, as saying many of the country's new bridges were being built too quickly and were poorly designed.
He also said China should learn from the recent lesson in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, when a bridge collapsed over the Mississippi River, killing nine people and leaving four others still missing.
Fenghuang, the ancient city where the bridge collapsed, is a tourist attraction. The area is surrounded by lush mountains and rice paddies and is home to the Miao and Tujia ethnic minorities and traditional houses built on stilts on the banks of the Tuo River.
The overnight bridge collapse is among the most deadly in recent memory in China. Nine people were killed on June 15 when a bridge in southern China's Guangdong province collapsed, killing nine people.
With files from The Associated Press
