The bodies of two Filipino fishermen who were killed in Taiwan after a bridge collapsed on their vessel have been found, the Philippine representative office in Taipei announced today.
In an interview with radio station Dobol B, Manila Economic and Cultural Office chair Lito Banayo said one Filipino fisherman remains missing in Nanfangao, where the towering 460-foot-long bridge collapsed at 9:30am yesterday.
“They found two bodies. One body was retrieved at midnight. They just identified him. The other body was found at around 4am,” Banayo said in Filipino, added that authorities are working on the immediate repatriation of the victims’ bodies.
The two fishermen have been identified by the labor department as Andree Abregana Serencio and Gorge Jagmis Impang, Rappler reports. Romulo Illustrimo Escalicas Jr., another fisherman, is believed to be underneath the rubble. The families of the victims have already been notified of the incident.
Five other Filipino fishermen were injured in the bridge collapse and brought to Poai Hospital and Rong Min Hospital for treatment. Three Indonesian fishermen were also injured, CBS News reported.
Government officials are still in the dark as to what caused the collapse of the Nanfangao Bridge, which opened in 1998 to replace a lower bridge. Before it fell, it was only the second single-arch cable-steel bridge in the world.
Rescue operations are still ongoing.
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