Authorities estimate that around 500 people, including many women and children, were taking part in religious celebrations on and around the bridge when the cables holding it up gave way as night fell.
The shocking moment of collapse of footbridge in India from which they have lost their lives, so far, 141 people, recorded by a security camera. Many more people are missing, while the search continues.
In the video, the bridge is seen shaking, and citizens remain stunned in place, oblivious to the mortal danger they face.
A few seconds after the video starts, the bridge collapses and nearly everyone on it falls into the river.
Authorities estimate that around 500 people, including many women and children, were taking part in religious celebrations on and around the bridge when the cables holding it up gave way as night fell.
The bridge over the river Matsou, which runs through Morbi, about 200 kilometers west of Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat, was built during the period of British colonial rule. It had just reopened to the public after months of maintenance.
“People fell on top of each other when the bridge gave way. They had gathered for the ceremonies of the festival of Diwali (ss. “of light”). There are many women and children among the victims,” ​​an eyewitness told an Indian media outlet.
P. Decavadiya, the police chief in Morbi, told AFP earlier that more than 130 people had been rescued.
Divers and soldiers
The suspension bridge, 233 meters long, it was built in 1880, with materials brought to Gujarat from England, according to Indian media. According to information broadcast by the television network NDTV, it reopened to the public last Wednesday after seven months of maintenance work, without a safety certificate being issued by the authorities.
The rescue operation involves divers, boats and dozens of army men.
Federal Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Gujarat — where he is from and where he rose to political prominence — called for “urgent mobilization of rescue teams” and help for all victims, his services said on Twitter.
Accidents on aging and poorly maintained infrastructure are common in India, especially on bridges.
In 2016, the collapse of an elevated footbridge over a busy road in the city of Kolkata (East) claimed the lives of at least 26 people.
In 2011, at least 32 people died when the bridge they were on collapsed during a religious festival in northeastern India, about 30 kilometers from the city of Darjeeling.
Less than a week later, around 30 more people died in the collapse of a footbridge connecting the two banks of a river in the state of Arunachal Pradesh (northeast).
In 2006, at least 34 people were killed when a bridge built 150 years earlier collapsed on an express passenger train at a station in Bihar state (east).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQHzOk0vAOs
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