Rescuers searched yesterday for scores of people missing after a suspension bridge collapsed into a river in west Nepal, killing at least 16 people, mostly women and children, and injuring 40, police said.
Search teams found one body yesterday and reports from relatives said at least 37 others were missing, police said.
The pillars of the iron bridge gave way on Tuesday under the weight of between 400 and 500 pedestrians crossing the Bheri river on their way to a religious festival, officials said.
Army and police rescuers pulled many survivors from the river on Tuesday and many others swam to safety after the accident near Chhinchu village, 320 km west of Kathmandu, officials said.
At least 30 people had been taken to hospital, some with broken bones, they said. Five in critical condition, some with head injuries, had been taken to Kathmandu for treatment.
"Hundreds of army and police search and rescue personnel armed with communication equipment, ropes, life jackets, rubber tubes and sticks, as well as health workers, have been sent to look for survivors," said Bharat Bahadur G.C., the region's top police officer overseeing the search operation.
"We have used loudspeakers and broadcast notices on local FM radio stations informing the villagers to come and report if anyone in their family or neighborhood was missing," he said from Surkhet, the biggest town in the region. Some of the bodies found so far had been recovered around 5 km downstream, he said.
Madhav Rijal, another police officer, described media reports of hundreds missing as a "wild guess".
Source: China Daily/Agencies
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