Local Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department boss Permwittaya Kantasong said it looked like the combined weight of so many people had snapped the bridge’s holding cables. An inspection after the accident revealed that as the cables broke, the main support posts had collapsed and the bridge itself had dropped as far as the surface of the Mae Sa Nga River.
The Buddhist devotees had crowded onto the 500-metre-long Su Tong Pae walkway and bridge to make merit for the end of the three-month period of Lent. They were there to give alms to 29 monks at Phusama Buddhist Meditation Park.
Su Tong Pae translates as completed prayer and it is said to be the longest such structure made out of bamboo in Thailand. An anonymous bystander claimed the part of the bridge which collapsed was the same sector damaged by flooding during the monsoon season. It only reopened a couple of weeks ago.
Ten hurt as bamboo river bridge in Mae Hong Son gives way
News in Asia
A bamboo bridge in Mae Hong Son with an estimated 500 people on it gave way early on Wednesday morning. Emergency services officers say 10 of the merit-makers were injured and one person had to be airlifted to Chiang Mai to receive treatment for serious head injuries.