China’s emergency services are still searching for more than 30 missing people after a bridge collapsed on Friday night during flooding in the western province of Shaanxi.

So far, a dozen people have been found dead after more than 20 cars plummeted into the river when the bridge snapped.

There’s now a gaping hole where the highway bridge used to be. One side is undamaged. But on the other side, the road looks as though it was snapped and bent vertically down.

A local farmer in Xing Ping village told us what happened: “Around 9pm, water poured down from that mountain. I heard the highway bridge collapse and two cars fell into the river. We went to see it but there was nothing we could do.”

China has deployed more than 800 emergency workers, boats, drones and earth-moving equipment to the scene.

President Xi Jinping has called for “all-out effort” to find survivors.

But time has surely run out. This looked like a recovery operation.

Walking along the river we saw three trucks and a car that were now stuck in the muddy bank or partly submerged. A crane was preparing to lift one out.

China’s rapid economic development over the last 40 years has seen an unprecedented expansion of its road, bridges and rail network.

But it’s also raised questions about the quality of some of its infrastructure projects.

This is the second bridge to collapse during this flooding season.

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The village farmer who saw it all unfold told us he’s worried: “It really scared people. It’s very unsafe.”

But he didn’t blame how the bridge was constructed, saying: “It couldn’t be helped. Thick tree trunks were washed down the river and broke the pillars. The water couldn’t flow and the bridge collapsed.”

Another farmer, Mr Huang, said he expected problems with local roads and bridges but not a major road like this. “We don’t expect expressways to have issues,” he said.

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As we left, the midday sun was high in the sky, the heat was unrelenting and rescue workers crouched in the shade waiting for orders.

China is adept at dealing with emergencies during its wet season. Millions of people have been affected and in a country with 1.4 billion people, very few have died.

This could be a freak incident. But in the race to modernise, there is a nagging sense among some Chinese that corners could have been cut and the result of that may now be catching up with China.

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