Vadodara bridge collapse death toll rises to 20; one person still missing

The death toll in the Mahisagar river bridge collapse in Gujarat's Vadodara district rose to 20 on Friday after an injured man died in hospital and the body of a missing person was found in the river, officials said.

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One more person was still missing, and efforts to find him will be resumed on Saturday as the search and rescue operation concluded in the evening, they said. Citing a preliminary probe report, a state minister said the collapse was caused by the "crushing of pedestal and articulation joints".

Several vehicles plunged into the river after a segment of the four-decade-old bridge near Gambhira village, connecting Anand and Vadodara districts, collapsed on Wednesday morning. "On the first day we managed to recover 12 bodies and six on the second day. Today, one victim died unfortunately at the hospital and we managed to retrieve another body," Vadodara collector Anil Dhamaliya said.

Narendrasinh Parmar (45), resident of resident of Dahevan village, died during treatment at Vadodara's SSG Hospital.

The main focus of the next stage of the operation on Saturday will be removing a large chunk of slab that has fallen into the river, the collector said.

"We will try to remove the main slab with the help of the technical team. Along with that, we will also try to retrieve a person in the missing list. Efforts will also be made to safely remove a tanker carrying sulfuric acid which is still stuck in the water," he said.