A major bridge has collapsed in northeast China, killing three and injuring five.

A convoy of freight trucks were reduced to piles of twisted metal after Yangmingtan bridge buckled over the Songua river in Harbin city early on Friday morning.

The bridge has only been open since November last year, when builders boasted it could handle 9,800 vehicles per hour.

But in the end it took just four passing trucks to bring it down.

As the latest of a slew of construction accidents in China in recent years, it has raised serious questions over the speed at which the government is rolling out its giant infrastructure programme.