Death toll in Morbi Bridge tragedy reached 150 after rescuers found nine more bodies until Monday Afternoon. Provincial authorities authorities fear death toll may rise further as dozens were still missing.
According to the correspondent of The correspondent of The Islamabad Telegraph, several dozens rescuers were still busy in searching for the survivors and the dead bodies.
” Special teams of rescuers in boats continue to scour a river after a pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed in India’s western state of Gujarat. It’s a grand operation which had begun last night and continue without a pause,” according to Anil Thakur, Correspondent of The Islamabad in Gujrat.
Emergency has been imposed in several hospitals of the Gujrat province soon after the iconic bridge collapsed last night. On Monday death toll reached to 150, most of them women, children or elderly.
Officials confirmed on Monday that Indian Prime Minister will be visiting the place of incident to offer his condolence to those who lost their loved ones in the tragic incident.
Per officials, There was overcrowding on the colonial-era bridge at the time as people celebrated the Diwali festival.
According to BBC, The 230m (754ft)-bridge on the Machchhu river was built during British rule in the 19th Century. In travel brochures, a visit to the Julto Pul (or the Hanging Bridge) is listed among “the top 10 things to do in Morbi” and it attracts a large number of tourists and local people on holidays and at festivals.
Officials have not yet said how many people were on the bridge when tragedy struck at around 18:40 (13:10 GMT) on Sunday, but estimates put it between 400 and 500.
More than 177 people have been rescued, officials told BBC . The death toll is expected to rise further.
On Monday morning, a dozen boats with members of the national and state disaster response teams were continuing to search for survivors while divers from the Indian navy were on standby, reports the BBC Gujarati’s Roxy Gagdekar who is at the scene.
Four cranes have been deployed to pull out the wreckage and rescuers are looking for bodies trapped underneath. Distressed relatives are looking for their loved ones and as the hours pass, their desperation is growing, our correspondent says.
A young man told the BBC that he was searching for his six-year-old sister since last night.
“I was holding her hand when the bridge collapsed and we fell into the river. I survived and have been looking for her everywhere, I went to the government hospital also, but my sister is nowhere to be found,” he said, sobbing.
A video shot before the collapse showed the overcrowded bridge swaying while people gripped the netting on its sides.
After the incident, dozens were seen clinging onto the wreckage as emergency teams attempted to rescue them. Some survivors clambered up the bridge’s broken netting, and others managed to swim to the river banks.
Early Monday morning, rescuers made an opening in a small check dam on the river, about 500 metres downstream, to reduce the water flow.
The bridge above the dam is packed with people, waiting to hear news of their loved ones or watching the rescue.
Questions are being asked about whether safety checks were done before the bridge was reopened.
Leader of the opposition Congress party Mallikarjun Kharge has demanded an inquiry headed by a retired judge to ascertain how the bridge collapsed after just “five-six days” of being reopened after renovations and who allowed so many people on it.
Prateek Vasava was on the bridge at the time. He told 24 Hours, a Gujarati-language news channel, how he had swum to the river bank.
Several children fell into the river, he said, adding: “I wanted to pull some of them along with me but they had drowned or got swept away.”