New Delhi : An ageing pedestrian bridge in eastern India collapsed yesterday, crushing a train car travelling beneath and killing at least 33 passengers, officials said.
Large slabs of red stone and concrete buried the sleeper carriage, trapping the people inside. So far 33 bodies have been recovered, including those of several small children, said Ajay Verma, deputy inspector general of police for railways. Fourteen people were pulled out alive.
The 150-year-old foot bridge at the Bhagalpur station, in the eastern state of Bihar, was in the process of being dismantled when it collapsed as the train passed under it early yesterday morning, said local government administrator Viplav Kumar, who was at the scene.
Bhagalpur is about 150 kilometres east of Patna, the capital of Bihar.
Railway officials initially believed that the carriage was mostly empty according to passenger lists - until debris was cleared away.
"A loud roar and the heavens seemed to have crumbled over us," passenger Anil Yadav said. "Thick clouds of dust streamed into the compartment, leaving me gasping for breath," he said. Television footage showed a man pleading for help through a shattered window.
Some of the bodies were pulled out by volunteers. However, it took several hours for heavy earth-moving machinery to reach the site, witnesses said.
"I and others like me ... pulled out eight or nine injured passengers by the time ambulances arrived and sent them to hospitals," Rahul Kumar, a witness, said.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said that there could still be more people trapped in the wreckage.
Prasad ordered an inquiry into the incident and suspended two railway engineers who were responsible for dismantling the bridge.
Hundreds of people crowded around the trapped carriage as rescue workers used cranes, bulldozers and even their hands to remove the rubble.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that apparently safety norms had not been followed and called the incident an "avoidable tragedy".
