A huge boulder broke loose from a mountainside in China's Sichuan province on Saturday afternoon and slammed into a car stuck in traffic on a narrow mountain road. Local authorities said no one was hurt.
Dashcam footage from the vehicle behind, which spread widely on Chinese social media, shows a white Peugeot 308 standing in a traffic jam. A woman in a white coat is seen standing beside the car. At one point she looks up toward the mountain, apparently spots the danger and starts moving away from the vehicle. Seconds later the rock rolls down the slope, strikes the rear of the car and shatters the back windshield before bouncing off and landing nearby.
According to Chinese media reports on Sunday, the incident took place at around 17:22 on Saturday, November 14, on a mountain road in Li County in southwestern Sichuan, near the road leading to the Lixiao tourist route. The stretch of road is short of the tourist route itself, some five to six kilometers from the local government offices in the township of Putou.
The car's owner told The Beijing News that two of his relatives were sitting in the back seat when the boulder hit. He said the moment the rock came down was terrifying, but fortunately none of the passengers was injured. Local authorities also confirmed that the incident ended without casualties.
Some social media users initially questioned whether the video was real and suggested it had been generated with artificial intelligence. After the clip attracted wide attention, Chinese media outlets contacted local authorities, who confirmed that the incident had taken place.
Li County police said the circumstances of the rockfall are still under investigation. Local government officials noted that the mountainous area is prone to falling rocks and that warning signs alerting drivers to the danger have been posted along the road.
Traffic was heavy at the time partly because of a local autumn holiday, which drew large numbers of visitors to the area and caused congestion on the narrow roads winding through the mountains.
