Taiwanese Soldiers Killed After Tank Tumbles Into River in Drills

Taiwanese officials say three soldiers died after an annual firing drill Tuesday morning, when a tank slipped and plummeted into a river in heavy rain. The vehicle, a CM11 armored tank carrying five soldiers to their camp in southern Pingtung county, slipped from a bridge and fell upside down into the Wangsha river.

Four of the soldiers were trapped in the tank and showed no signs of life when their bodies were recovered. The driver escaped and one of the recovered men was later revived at a military hospital in nearby Kaohsiung city.

"We are still investigating the cause of the accident," Military spokesman Alfonso Yang said. The army is claiming that a possible malfunction in the tank caused the driver to be unable to make a left turn, causing it to fall into the river. 

President Tsai Ing-wen gave her condolences through a spokesman and called for the military to conduct a speedy investigation to find the cause of the accident.

The incident occurs just days before President Tsai is scheduled to preside over "Han Kuang 32" (Han Glory), an annual live-fire exercise in Pingtung county, the same area where the tank sank.