China: Tourists terrified after Yuntai mountain glass walkway cracks 3,540ft in air

Tourists in China were left terrified after witnessing cracks on a glass walkway 3,540ft in air on 5 October. The transparent 853ft-long U-shaped walkway hangs to a cliff on the Yuntai Mountain in Central China's Henan Province and only recently opened to public on 20 September.

The incident left panicked tourists fleeing the walkway causing a mini stampede, with one witness claiming people were pushing through the crowds to make their escape. All the tourists were evacuated and the walkway has been closed to the public until investigation continues.

Meanwhile, the incident sparked a major uproar over social media with users claiming cheap material was used in the construction of the glass walkway. A spokesman for the Yuntai Mountain tourism bureau confirmed that cracks were found in the glass walkway. The cracks emerged after a tourist dropped a stainless steel flask on the walkway, said the spokesman.

"I heard a bang from under...everybody is screaming. I cried, 'It's really cracked! It's really cracked!' And pushed the people in front of me to get away," said a witness on Chinese social media site, Weibo, reported People's Daily Online.

The walkway was built to endure a weight of roughly 800kgs per square metre and has three layers of glass, and since only one glass layer was damaged, tourists were not left in danger, confirmed the spokesman.

Similar incidents have haunted several other glass-bottomed structures worldwide. In 2014, a visitor reportedly dropped a beer bottle shattering a panel of London's Tower Bridge glass structure. The breakage, however only affected a "sacrificial" panel covering thicker glass below posing no risk to visitors, confirmed the Tower Bridge officials.