Taiwan troops rehearse sealing off key bridge during war games

Taiwanese troops on Thursday practiced defending a bridge at a critical chokepoint that could give Chinese forces a shortcut to take the capital Taipei, as annual war games entered their second day testing the island's ability to repel an attack.



Taiwan kicked off the Han Kuang exercises on Wednesday. Lasting 10 days, the drills focus on Taiwan's combat readiness against a potential attack from China, which regards the democratically-ruled island as its own territory and has vowed to bring it under its control, by force if necessary.



The Danjiang Bridge, which opened earlier this year, crosses the entrance to the Tamsui River which leads to Taipei though it is located in the capital's neighbouring city of New Taipei.



Soldiers erected barriers, barbed wire defences and sandbag positions during the late night exercise on what is the world's longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge.



Military vehicles and flatbed trucks drove onto the bridge as soldiers unrolled coils of barbed wire, unloaded sandbags and set up defensive positions.