Manama: Bahraini and Saudi authorities have denied rumors that parts of the 25-km King Fahd Causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia had collapsed, resulting in the death of dozens of people.
The rumours, first reported on a local website, quickly spread across the region via other sites and short mobile messages, causing the King Fahd Causeway Authority (KFCA) to be flooded with calls from citizens and the media. Several journalists flocked on the causeway to report on the alleged tragedy.
However, the KFCA, the authority overseeing the causeway, denied the allegations and said that the structure was robust and that traffic movement was continuing as usual.
The causeway, Bahrain’s only terrestrial link with the world, was opened in November 1986 by the late King Fahad Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia and Shaikh Eisa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Amir of Bahrain. More than 171 million people have used the causeway to travel from or to Bahrain between 1986 and 2008, KFCA said last month.
Hours after the King Fahad Causeway hoax, a second rumour spread across Bahrain, alleging the death of six people in the collapse of the Sitra causeway, the structure linking the islands of Sitra, Nabih Saleh and Bahrain. The rumour was denied by the works ministry as untrue amid calls not to pay attention to allegations seeking to create chaos in the country.
Last week, the health ministry denied allegations that patients were being treated on the floor of Bahrain’s largest medical complex. The claims were made in a caption of a picture showing a child receiving medical treatment on the floor of a health facility. The ministry’s spokesperson refuted the claims by explaining how the details on the picture proved that it was not taken in Bahrain.
