One dead, 19 injured after Kolkata bridge collapses
05 September, 2018
Rescue workers were working to see if anyone was trapped in the debris after a bridge collapsed on Tuesday (Sep 4) in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, which killed at least one person.
Nineteen others were also injured, reported local media.
Cars were seen among the rubble and a large portion of the bridge was destroyed, but as yet it was not known if there were casualties.
People stand next to the wreckage of vehicles at the site of a bridge that collapsed in Kolkata on Sep 4, 2018. (Photo: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri)
"We are trying to assess if there are people trapped beneath the debris," Sovan Chatterjee, the mayor of Kolkata, who visited the accident site, told Reuters.
Televised images from the accident site showed a section about 30m long that had dropped to the ground, reported Associated Press.
Half a dozen of vehicles, including a bus, also fell with the section of concrete.
Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal state, said in a televised address: "We are still assessing the gravity of the situation and we cannot talk about the deaths right now."
All India Trinamool Congress, the West Bengal state's ruling party, said on Twitter the bridge was 40 years old.
There were no more immediate details of the cause of the collapse.
In March 2016, another bridge collapsed in the city, killing more than two dozen people.
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