Car falls from collapsed China bridge amid deadly flooding

Days of heavy rain in central China turned a roadside breakdown into a close call in Xiaogan, Hubei province, when a bridge gave way and dropped a car into a fast-flowing river after the driver and passengers had already managed to escape.

Eyewitness video showed the vehicle perched on the broken span before the structure collapsed beneath it. Local media said the car had malfunctioned and could not reverse, leaving it trapped on the bridge as the damaged section failed. The location was confirmed by matching the terrain, road layout and nearby buildings with archival and satellite images.

The collapse happened on May 25, 2026, after days of prolonged rainfall had already flooded parts of the region. It added a stark infrastructure failure to a weather emergency that has been battering southern and central China, where bridges, roads and river crossings have been under pressure from swollen water and persistent storms.

The Xiaogan incident unfolded against a wider death toll that had been climbing through the week. On May 19, at least 21 people had been killed by torrential rain and flooding across southern and central China. By the morning of May 22, the death toll from heavy rains stood at 16, with several people still unaccounted for in Hunan, Guizhou and Hubei provinces, according to Chinese state media.

The flooding also forced large-scale evacuations. More than 16,000 residents had been moved out of high-risk areas in Guangdong by noon on May 21, while transportation links and rescue operations were disrupted across the region. Schools, businesses and power supplies were also hit in some areas as the storms continued.

In Xiaogan, the bridge collapse showed how quickly severe rainfall can expose weak points in local infrastructure. The car fell only after its occupants had escaped, but the video captured a more troubling question for authorities across the region: whether inspections, drainage systems and emergency responses are keeping pace with increasingly destructive weather.