Several glass panes of the Piyanshan Glass Footbridge in the city of Longjing were damaged by extreme weather in the Piyan Mountain tourist area, according to a statement posted on the city’s official Weibo social media account.
Glass panels beneath the tourist’s feet were reported to have cracked and crashed toward the cliffs below the bridge.
In what is truely the stuff of nightmares the man reportedly gripped onto the bridge’s guardrails, with several gaps seen in front of him between beams that span around 8.2 feet horizontally across the bridge, according to Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper.
The man was stranded on the bridge, which is around 1,310 feet (400 meters) long, after several pieces of the glass deck were blown off following wind gusts of up to around 93 miles (150 kilometers) per hour in the area at around 12:45 p.m. local time on Friday, the city government said.
According to the Longjing municipal party committee, the area saw record wind gusts of between 12 and 13 on the Beaufort wind scale of 1 to 17, Apple Daily reported. (scroll down for video)
The tourist was eventually able to crawl back to safety at around 1:20 p.m. local time following the joint rescue efforts of firefighters and police as well as forestry and tourism staff.
The statement shared on Weibo said: “Our staff rushed to the scene with emergency equipment and successfully transferred the trapped person to safety. The incident caused no casualties.
“The trapped person was taken to hospital for observation. He was discharged as his mental and physical condition were stable,” the statement added.
His trousers, on the other hand, needed replacing.
