Over 1,600 participants joined in the contest, exerting an estimated 80,000 kg or more of force on a nylon rope that could bear a force of about 26,000 kg at most.

Within seconds the rope snapped, severing the left arms of two men (Yang Chiung-ming and Chen Ming-kuo) below the shoulder. (The severing of their limbs was believed to have been caused by sheer rebounding force of the broken rope rather than the men's having wrapped the rope around their arms, as was sometimes reported.) The victims were taken to Mackay Memorial Hospital and underwent seven hours of microsurgery to reattach their arms.