As reported, a coach burnt out under the bridge in the early hours of Saturday morning. No one was injured, but for safety reasons the surrounding slip roads and the structure itself were temporarily closed. "Extensive concrete repair is required," said a spokesperson for Autobahn GmbH. The federal government-owned company is not yet able to say when the renovation will take place and how much it will cost. But the overhaul should definitely be done within a year.

The coach was travelling on the A 565 in the direction of Koblenz when the driver noticed smoke and signs of fire on the outside of the vehicle at around 0.40 a.m., according to the fire brigade after the incident. The driver stopped the coach under the Endenicher Allee bridge and ordered the 16 passengers to get off. According to Simon Rott, spokesperson for the Bonn police, the driver was also warned by a fire alarm in the vehicle, whereupon he immediately stopped on the hard shoulder.

A short time later, the back rows of the coach were already on fire. When the fire brigade and rescue service arrived after several emergency calls, the entire vehicle was on fire. "The aim now was to quell the flames and thus reduce the transfer of energy to the bridge structure as quickly as possible," said a fire brigade spokesperson about the operation, for which a shuttle operation was set up with several tanker fire engines that transported thousands of litres of water between the Hermann-Wandersleb-Ring and the motorway.

The coach was towed away at around 7.50 on Saturday. That morning, employees of the civil engineering office of the city of Bonn, the Autobahn GmbH and a structural engineer examined the bridge on Endenicher Allee. "Due to the heat during the fire and the extinguishing water, spalling and cavities occurred in places in the rear end area on the right-hand side of the bridge abutment," explained the Autobahn GmbH spokesperson. Abutments support the end of a bridge superstructure. The damage to the concrete is between two and ten centimetres deep, the spokesperson explained. "To ensure road safety, all damaged areas were tapped and loose concrete removed," she said. She added that the precautionary closures had been lifted on Saturday, with only the hard shoulder still closed off with beacons, which did not impede traffic.

According to police spokesperson Rott, the cause of the fire is still being investigated: " It is assumed that there was a technical defect in the vehicle." The coach had burnt out completely. According to a spokesperson for the German Insurance Association (GDV), in the event of fire damage to third parties, as in this case to the motorway bridge caused by the fire in the coach, the vehicle's motor vehicle liability insurance will take effect.

(Original text: Christine Ludewig; Translation: Jean Lennox)