Thu Thiem Bridge manhole thief arrested

The man was arrested Friday after police extracted a series of security camera footage over the past week.

The man has admitted to committing the theft, police said, but did not release further information about him.

A week after it opened to traffic on Apr. 28, the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge connecting HCMC’s District 1 and Thu Thiem peninsula had lost 32 of its 110 manhole covers.

It had been previously reported that 44 manholes were stolen, but police later confirmed that the correct number was 32. The cast iron covers have a diameter of 23 cm each.

The six lane Thu Thiem 2 Bridge is 1.5 km long and was built at a cost of VND3.1 trillion ($134.54 million).

Since its opening, it has helped reduce traffic in the nearby Thu Thiem tunnel, which runs beneath the Saigon River also between the downtown area and Thu Thiem New Urban Area in Thu Duc City.