Panels on Chinese glass bridge fall out during gale-force winds, leaving tourist traumatised

The man managed to crawl back to the ground holding on to beams

File A glass-bottomed skywalk, certified as the world’s longest, at the Ordovician park in Wansheng. Hovering more than 100 metres (328 feet) above a gaping chasm (AFP via Getty Images)

A tourist in China had a nightmarish experience when he was left dangling, holding on just to the railings of a glass-bottomed bridge after its panels were blown off by strong winds.

Wind gusts of up to 150km/h managed to rip off some of the glass panels of the bridge, a tourist attraction in northeast China’s Jilin province, suspended 100 meter above the valley and overlooking the Piyan Mountains.

A single tourist, who was on the bridge during rough weather was left stranded on one rise of it. A hair-raising picture going viral on Chinese social media platform Weibo shows the man clinging to the railing while several glass panels in from of him were blown away.

After 40 minutes of ordeal, the man was finally rescued after firefighters, police, tourism, and forestry officials were rushed to the bridge to help him return to safety, reported The Straits Times.

The tourist had to crawl along the railings of the bridge and managed to hit the ground safely.

He had to hospitalised where he is receiving counselling for psychological trauma caused by his narrow brush from the fatal accident.

The incident triggered a debate on Weibo over the safety concerns of glass-bottomed bridges in the country with many raising questions on maintenance and upkeep.

Glass-floor bridges have become increasingly popular in China with at least 60 such bridges across the country till 2016, according to the Geological Museum of China. The bridges are more common in mountainous provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan and Yunnan.

Due to rising popularity, guidelines have been passed by the provincial governments to make them safer.

China’s north Hebei Province introduced technical standards in 2018 to close bridges during bad weather and natural disasters and issued guidelines that allow only three people to stand over a glass panel.