10 Killed in Bridge Collapse in Vadodara

The nearly 900-meter-long Gambhira bridge has 23 piers and connects Vadodara and Anand districts of Gujarat. It was inaugurated in 1985

- AGENCIES

Ten persons, including two siblings, were killed and nine others rescued, some of them with injuries, after multiple vehicles plunged into the Mahisagar river when a portion of a four-decade-old bridge collapsed in Vadodara district on Wednesday morning, officials said.

A slab of the Gambhira bridge, which connects central Gujarat to the Saurashtra region and is located near Padra town, caved in, killing ten persons, Superintendent of Police (Vadodara rural) Rohan Anand said.

Visuals from the site showed the entire chunk of the slab of the bridge between two piers has collapsed. The slab collapse caused the vehicles, which were passing through the bridge, to plunge into the river.

Five out of nine persons who were rescued were getting treated at state-run SSG Hospital in Vadodara city, Anand said, adding none of them is in a critical condition.

The SP said the 10 to 15 meters long slab of the bridge came crashing down at around 7.30 am.

The rescue operation, involving fire brigade personnel, local residents as well as a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), was still underway at the site, officials said.