Foot Bridge Collapses in India; 30 Feared Drowned

At least 30 people, the majority of them women and children, are feared to be dead after a foot bridge spanning a river in north-eastern India collapsed on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police Kime Aya said the casulties occurred when villagers, who had set out to hunt teri (an insect which is a delicacy for the locals), were crossing the bridge at around 5:30pm.

Although police and paramilitary forces were able to pull out around 28 villagers from the water, the swift current of the river and darkness were creating impediments for the search and rescue teams , the Press Trust of India quoted police as saying.

The bridge crosses the Kameng River in Arunachal Pradesh state. The region is nearly 370 miles (500 kilometers) north of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.

It was the second bridge collapse in India within a week.

Last week, some 32 people died and 132 were injured after a wooden bridge collapsed at a political event in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal state.

via Washington Post
Image:Flickr