Huge search on for missing in Nepal bridge collapse

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Troops joined police searching Wednesday for hundreds of people missing a day after a bridge collapsed killing 16 and injuring 40 more in a steep river gorge in Nepal, officials said.

Police said 35 people had been officially reported as missing by relatives on Wednesday and the number was expected to rise.

"The rescue operations began early Wednesday morning. Around 450 police and soldiers have been deployed to scour the river banks from three locations," district administrator Anil Kumar Pandey told AFP by phone.

The 500-metre (1,650-foot) bridge, only a year old and made of metal and steel coils, plunged into the gorge after a catastrophic failure of one of the supporting pillars that rose 50 metres above the water level, officials said.

Despite the search efforts, including two helicopters that were scouring the river, hopes of finding people still alive appeared remote.

"The chances of finding survivors look slim," Pandey said.

Deputy superintendent of police Bahadur Jung Malla, who was involved in the rescue operations, told AFP that police and army teams were combing the river banks up to 40 kilometres downstream.

"It appears that mostly women and children are the ones who have gone missing," he said.

"It's a huge tragedy. Relatives are coming to us to report about their missing kin," Malla added.

Nar Bahadur Bika, a resident of a nearby village who was on the edge of the bridge on Tuesday when the accident occurred, said the span was so packed "there was hardly any space to move."

"The bridge was swaying and all of a sudden I heard a cracking sound," Bika told AFP from a hospital where two relatives were recovering.

Bika said he jumped into the river to save himself after he saw one of the supporting pillars coming down.

"I managed to pull 10 people safely from the river," said the 19-year-old.

"The area echoed with sounds of panic. I could see hands and heads of so many people in the river and I could do nothing," Bika said.

The bridge was crowded with locals who were heading to a religious ceremony to celebrate the full moon that began on Monday.

Around 40 people, mostly women and children, who were rescued from the site were treated in hospitals in nearby towns, the official said.

"Some of the seriously wounded have been airlifted to Kathmandu for further treatment," said Pandey.

"Many people with mild injuries have been sent home after first-aid treatment," added Malla.

Initial rescue efforts were halted in the cold and darkness overnight.

The site where the bridge fell into the river is estimated to be around 25 metres deep, the police official said.

Officials fear many people may have been swept downstream into remote areas of the mainly agricultural countryside that surrounds the Bheri, one of Nepal's largest rivers.

But as many as 100 people reportedly managed to swim to safety with the river at low winter season flow.

Superintendent Malla said dozens of people scrambled to safety after clinging on to ropes hanging off the fallen bridge.

Nepal's home ministry expressed "deep sorrow" over the incident in a statement Wednesday and said that a high-level committee would investigate the accident.

Nepal has hundreds of small bridges in the rugged countryside that range from rope or wooden planks to steel and concrete.

The landlocked Himalayan nation is cut by dozens of rivers across one of the steepest topographies in the world.

SOURCE-http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071226/wl_asia_afp/nepalaccidentbridge_071226162216

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Divers and ground rescuers scoured an icy river and its banks in west Nepal on Thursday for 30 people still missing after a suspension bridge collapsed, leaving at least 16 dead and 80 others injured, officials said.

The metal bridge meant to carry pedestrians broke and fell into the Bheri river on Tuesday while hundreds of people were crossing it to attend a local religious fair near Chhinchu village, 320 km (200 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu.

Of 40 people earlier reported by relatives as missing, nine have returned to their families and a girl was undergoing treatment in a hospital, officials said.

"I believe more people will return to their families and the number of missing will further come down today," Bharat Bahadur G.C., a top police officer in Surkhet, the biggest city in the region, said on Thursday.

"Some people could have been swept away by the icy river and there is little chance of finding them alive now," he said, adding it was so cold divers were unable to swim for long.

Anil Pandey, the region's top bureaucrat, rejected reports that said hundreds of people were missing.

"Only some portion of the collapsed bridge is in water and the rest is on the river bank, so many people could have walked home," Pandey said after a visit to the remote accident site.

Many of the injured victims who were taken to hospital and local health posts have returned home, while others, some with broken bones, are still under treatment, officials said.

Mountainous Nepal lacks road networks in its rugged countryside, and trail bridges supported by iron pillars and cables connect remote villages across the Himalayan rivers.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Jerry Norton)