From NetEase:

Sea Vessel Hits Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge & Sinks, Causes Yinzheng City Residents to Panic Buy Water

On the afternoon of May 12, panic-buying of drinking water broke out amongst city residents in Yizheng City of Jiangsu province. As it is understood, the reason is because early that morning, a seacraft carrying 12,500 tons of limestone had sunk after brushing against one of the pillars of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. City residents downstream worried that the water quality would be contaminated scrambled to supermarkets to buy potable water. Limestone actually doesn’t dissolve in water, and thus didn’t cause any large-scale contamination.

[Above] May 12, Jiangsu Yizheng, a supermarket sold out of drinking water.

A city resident calling the relevant government department asking why drinking water is sold out.

A city resident buying up drinking water.

According to a notice issued by the Nanjing Marine Safety Agency, on May 12 at about 4:20 am, after a sea vessel brushed itself against a Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge pillar between the 6th and 7th spans, it sunk in the shallows of the northern shore (the islet head of Bagua Islet) 3.5 kilometers downstream of the bridge. All 18 crew members on board were rescued, and the bridge is for the time being unaffected. Photos are of the area where the shipwreck [and the pillar it collided with].

Comments from NetEase:

网易北京市网友 ip：118.186.*.*:

The bridge sure is tough, and sure enough it’s an old bridge. Let today’s bridge-building SBs take a look, aren’t you all ashamed??

和谐协会会长 [网易广东省珠海市网友]:

There is a group of people, who don’t have high salaries but have no small amount of savings, who don’t understand foreign languages but are always going abroad, who don’t touch their wives but are constantly getting laid, who don’t go to work often but attend a lot of dinner parties, who say nothing of significance but get a lot of applause, who have lousy [mahjong] tiles but win a lot of money [a method of bribery in China is to purposefully lose money to officials while playing mahjong], who are unfair in the exercise of their duties but rake a lot of profit, who have many wives and children emigrated abroad, who have many lovers and mistresses, who don’t work much but are given many accomplishments, who don’t have much ability but have many titles, and when they see a situation turning sour, they turn tail and run…

futingke [网易山东省潍坊市网友]:

I remember during the Japanese earthquake, there were people in our country panic buying salt, and now it’s water. Their characters are just like this.

上海13哥 [网易上海市徐汇区网友]: (responding to above)

Chinese people will rush to loot and panic buy things for no reason, their characters are too lousy, and their slave natures too serious, they deserve to be enslaved!

网易福建省龙岩市网友 ip：218.6.*.*: (responding to futingke)

Ever since there has been TG [a critical nickname Chinese netizens have for the Communist Party, in English it means Communist Bandits], whenever something like this happens that can be covered up, it is covered up. After so many years, the ordinary common people have become paranoid due to their lies, so they can only follow the crowd, and whatever other people are doing, they do the same. At least this way, they won’t get the worst of it or minimize their losses. Therefore, the root cause of this phenomenon doesn’t lie with the ordinary common people. Where does the root cause lie? Actually, this is something everybody already knows…

内阁总理大臣李鸿章 [网易山东省济南市网友]: (responding to futingke)

One has to look out for oneself.

We’ve all been jaded by “national security” and “denying rumours”.

Comments from QQ:

腾讯网友 J.:

Was the water we used to drink any safer? I even wonder if I’ve eaten any safe food ever since my family stopped growing crops for ourselves! I strongly demand that those who endanger society with food be severely punished with the death penalty, or fine them into bankruptcy, never to be allowed to manufacture processed foods ever again! Everybody, follow me, there’s not much time!

腾讯濮阳市网友 人生如戏:

City residents have all been institutionalized by the safety accidents of recent years! And speaking of the quality of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, from this we can see it’s not bad! The old generation of architects and builders were good! Mao Yisheng! Look at the bridges today, collapsing from trucks weighing just a few dozen tons, blowing up just from trucks carrying fireworks…Technology has advanced, but why has [construction] quality gone backwards? Our compatriots all know why!

腾讯沈阳市网友 倾听:

Ha ha, scrambling to buy woad during SARS, scrambling to buy salt after the Japanese Earthquake, scrambling to buy candles during the end of the world [2012], and now scrambling to buy water after a ship hits a bridge. What’s next? Let’s wait and see…

腾讯上海市网友 桃子:

The tragedy of our countrymen! If it were a time of turmoil, they would be the typical group most easily incited and instigated against each other!

腾讯西安市网友 123239617:

Behind the panic-buying, the selfish and narrow-minded side of the Chinese people is revealed. This is a product of cultural attributes as well as a huge limit in judgement. Amongst many factors, our country’s people have developed a “paranoia” due to the government’s failures to act and dereliction of duty. It’s a tragedy of the people as well as a tragedy of the government!

腾讯网友 1908706916:

Chinese people, Chinese people, when will you wake up?! When [Japan] had a tsunami, your bought salt. When the price of gold dropped a bit, you swept the world buying gold. A small ship accidentally hits a bridge and now you’re snapping up bottled water. Are you afraid you won’t have water to drink in our mainland China??

腾讯网友 小丑鱼:

If we are not rushing to buy salt, we’re rushing to buy water, can we be a little more rational?!

腾讯网友 我是谁:

Poisonous milk powder, rat meat, cucumbers sprayed with contraceptives so they’re exceptionally straight, hens have fed with Sudan Red so their egg yolks are also red and more likely to lay eggs with double yolks, oh, and also poisonous ginger, rice, vegetables, fruits, air, and water. We are surrounded, can’t even hide/avoid if we wanted to, calling for back-up… Why hasn’t back-up arrived? Oh… they are busy fighting with their neighbors.

腾讯福建省网友 小朱朱:

Why do Chinese people “think wind means rain” [always assume the worst?]

腾讯上海市网友 呆呆是monster: