The disappearance of a 56-tonne bridge in Russia just overnight has sparked controversy

News24xx.com - We have heard of cars, bikes, laptops even ATM machines being stolen, but have you ever heard of a bridge being stolen? Weird, isn’t it?

The disappearance of a 56-tonne bridge in Russia has sparked controversy, and prompted the police to start an investigation into the incident.

In Russia’s Murmansk region, this bizarre incident has sent the local residents into a tizzy.

According to the Daily Mail, the bridge is roughly 75 feet in length and weighs over 50 tonnes. It is located on the Umba river in the Arctic region. In May, reports of the bridge's mysterious disappearance began to circulate on VK - a Russian social media platform.

Another bizarre thing is that the bridge has disappeared without a trace. 

Some 10 days ago, pictures of the bridge were again shared on VK, which showed that a part of the bridge had broken down and the debris was lying in the water below.  

Now, a few days later, there is absolutely no sign of the broken bridge. In fact, the debris also disappeared. This triggered a detailed investigation which revealed that the bridge had not sunk to the bottom of the river.

"It was taken away by unknowns. At the bottom, too, there are no large debris. Natural phenomena could not bring down the bridge", wrote the page.

Locals believe that the bridge was torn down and then stolen by metal thieves. Its has been reported to Kirovsk Police.

There is a reason everyone believes that it's the doing of metal thieves - it wasn’t the first episode of scrap metal thieves damaging infrastructure in the region. There were attempts to steal transmission towers in the nearby Apatity in summer 2018. 

In 2008, Russian police hunted scrap metal thieves who stole an even larger 200-tonne metal bridge in a night-time raid.

According to The Independent, Kirovsk Prosecutor's Office confirmed an investigation was underway, regarding the bridge's disappearance. Police say that thieves may have acted to sell scrap metal, but their identity and the way they operated is still unknown.

Police said in their statement that the bridge belonged to a company operating in the area, and estimated material losses of about 600,000 Russian rubles had been incurred, according to The Independent.

 

 

 

 

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