Russia: Truck driver takes on flooded suspension bridge... and loses

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This is the moment a brave truck driver tries to cross a flooded suspension bridge in eastern Russia.

Video captured the dramatic scene as the bridge collapsed under the weight of the truck on Friday.

The bridge, mainly made out of wood, had been built to replace a road bridge destroyed in a previous flood.

But more recent flooding had made crossing the wooden bridge a risky undertaking even before the truck came along.

The footage showed the truck approaching the bridge and then driving onto the narrow and rickety structure in the village of Uryum, more than 3,700 miles east of Moscow.

As the truck reached the middle of the bridge, the structure started to fail and eventually it crumbled into the river, taking the vehicle with it.

The driver survived but his truck was not so lucky.

Neither were the residents of Uryum village - they now have no way to cross the river and will need to build yet another replacement bridge.

Uryum's bridge is not the only one that was damaged by extreme rain in recent days, with floods also damaging a bridge on Russia's Trans-Siberian railway.

A bridge also gave way in the Zabaikalsk region, around 190 miles north of Russia's border with China and Mongolia. No casualties were reported.

Around 650 homes were flooded and five road bridges washed away in the region's floods on Thursday, according to TASS news agency.

It comes in the same week as extreme flooding in China and parts of Europe.
