Highway overpass collapses in Kolkata, injured being treated
Up to eight people potentially hospitalised as 30-metre section drops to ground below, along with six vehicles including a bus
Televised images from the scene showed a section about 30 metres (100 feet) long that dropped to the ground below. A half-dozen vehicles, including a bus, fell with the section of concrete.
Seven or eight people were taken to a local hospital after the collapse in the city’s Majerhat neighbourhood, West Bengal state urban development ministry official Firhad Hakim told reporters.
Police and firefighters were using cutting tools to clear the wreckage, and it was unclear how many people may be trapped.
In a post on Twitter, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: ‘The collapse of a part of a bridge in Kolkata is deeply unfortunate. My thoughts are with the families of the victims. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest.”
In 2016, a section of an unfinished overpass cutting through Kolkata collapsed, killing 26 people and leaving dozens injured.
An official report later blamed that accident on bad design and poor-quality materials.