A whole bunch of individuals had crowded onto what’s popularly generally known as the “hanging bridge” in Gujarat’s Morbi within the moments earlier than it gave means at 6.42pm on Sunday, leaving not less than 70 individuals useless and dozens extra feared drowned.
Whereas particulars of the useless weren’t instantly accessible, the medical superintendent of Morbi Civil Hospital stated a lot of the victims on the hospital had been kids who died of drowning.
“The situation of among the injured was essential,” he stated, including that the toll might rise by Monday morning.
Eyewitnesses stated the incident happened in a break up second. “The bridge was jam-packed on the time of the accident as many individuals had come as a consequence of Diwali holidays,” stated Supran, who recognized utilizing only one title and lives simply throughout the bridge.
“The cables snapped and the bridge got here down inside a spilt of a second. Folks fell on one another and into the river. Some managed to carry on the aspect bars of the bridge,” he stated, questioning why native authorities , allowed so many individuals onto the suspension bridge within the first place.
“We tried to avoid wasting as many individuals as attainable. We pulled out individuals who had been capable of swim ashore. As the general public had fallen into center of the river, we weren’t capable of save them. The native authorities took its time to achieve the accident web site,” one other native resident, who recognized himself as Ranjanbhai Patel, instructed a neighborhood information channel.
Movies on social media confirmed individuals clinging onto the partly submerged bridge in misery whereas one other confirmed individuals swimming to security.
“I had come to the river financial institution together with buddies after my workplace hours after we heard the sound of the bridge snapping. We rushed there and jumped into the water to avoid wasting individuals,” information company PTI quoted one other eyewitness stated.
“We rescued some kids and girls,” he added.
The Morbi bridge collapse is among the deadliest of such disasters in India in current a long time. It was final in 2016 when a flyover in Kolkata partially collapsed onto a busy avenue, claiming the lives of not less than 26 individuals.
In October, 2011, not less than 32 individuals had been killed when a bridge full of pageant crowds collapsed about 30 kilometres from Darjeeling.
Lower than every week later, round 30 individuals had been killed when a footbridge over a river in Arunachal Pradesh collapsed.
As night time fell, officers stated a Gujarat State Catastrophe Response Drive (SDRF) workforce nearer to Morbi reached the accident web site at round 7:30 pm, taking virtually an hour for the reason that slim method roads to the bridge had been clogged as a consequence of Chath Puja rush.
Morbi has giant variety of tile manufacturing items, the place a lot of migrant staff from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar work and due to this fact, Chhath Puja is the key pageant. The time of the accident coincided with immersion of Chhath Puja idols, officers stated, terming this a purpose for delay in beginning rescue.