Sharply-suited dignitaries gathered to inaugurate a footbridge in the Congolese capital on Monday only for the structure to collapse beneath their feet to the barely concealed delight of onlookers, video verified by Reuters showed.
Just as an organiser cut the ribbon at the ceremony in Kinshasa’s Mont-Ngafula district, the bridge buckled, both its handrails broke off, and the central section slumped into the stream a couple of metres below.
Spectators shouted in apparent glee as the VIPs struggled to get off the crumpled wreck. Nobody was reported to have been hurt in the incident.
One of the last people to climb free was a man in military fatigues and dark glasses who was clutching an unopened bottle of champagne, other footage shared widely on social media showed.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
On Liz Truss, Vladimir Putin taunts UK: ‘Their ruling elites have arrangements’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the way Britain chooses its leaders was “far from democratic”, a day after Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister. “The people of Great Britain don’t take part, in this instance, in the change of government. The ruling elites there have their arrangements,” he told an economic forum in Vladivostok.
-
Pakistan looks like a sea: Shehbaz Sharif’s emotional appeal amid record floods
Parts of Pakistan seemed “like a sea”, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday, after visiting some of the flood-hit areas that cover as much as a third of the South Asian nation, where 18 more deaths took the toll from days of rain to 1,343. The government, which has boosted cash handouts for flood victims to 70 billion Pakistani rupees ($313.90 million), will buy 200,000 tents to house displaced families, he added.
-
On Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial, a documentary on the turning points
The much-publicized defamation trial involving actor Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard ended with Depp being awarded $10 million in damages. But the buzz around the trial has not subsided yet. A new documentary titled ‘Johnny vs Amber: The US Trial’ will throw light on the trial that the world watched with bated breath. The two-part series will feature interviews with Johnny Depp’s lawyers, legal experts, and journalists, a report in NME said.
-
‘Sri Lanka’s economic crisis a result of past impunity…’: UN report
Sri Lanka is facing a “devastating” economic crisis, a UN report has said, noting that “impunity” for past and present human rights abuses, economic crimes and corruption were the underlying causes for the island nation’s collapse. Interestingly, it comes ahead of the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council Session, to be held in Geneva from September 12 to October 7, where a resolution on Sri Lanka is expected to be tabled.
-
China’s Xi, Russia’s Putin to meet in Uzbekistan next week
Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet next week during a regional summit in Uzbekistan, a Russian diplomat said Wednesday, as the Chinese leader makes his first trip abroad since the start of the pandemic. “In less than 10 days our leaders will meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit” in Samarkand, the Russian ambassador to China, Andrey Denisov, told Russian agencies.