Thursday 31 March 2016

Heavy casualties as flyover collapses onto moving traffic in central Kolkata, India

Flyover 2At least more than ten people have been killed and some 150 are feared trapped after a flyover collapsed onto moving traffic in the Indian city of Kolkata on Thursday.
Flyover
Dozens may be crushed underneath the under-construction-overpass, which came down during rush hour in a teeming commercial district near Girish Park.
Footage shows firefighters and residents trying to rescue those who remain under the wreckage with their bare hands.32B2CCF700000578-3516983-image-a-45_1459417540373
Police and passers-by were using their hands to try to move giant slabs of concrete and metal to reach those trapped, after the bridge collapsed at around lunchtime on a busy road, television footage showed.
'One person is confirmed dead. Sixty-two people who were trapped under the debris have been shifted to hospital, some of them are critical,' Anurag Gupta, National Disaster Management Authority spokesman said
Gupta said it was unclear how many people were still trapped under the debris but said 'pedestrians as well as vehicles came under the falling flyover'.32B2CCD700000578-3516983-image-a-42_1459417521699
Specialist rescue teams armed with concrete cutters, drilling machines, sensors to detect life and sniffer dogs were being rushed to the scene, Gupta added.
Television footage showed one bloodied body trapped under a concrete slab, and also the hand of a person sticking out from under twisted debris. 
'Monumental tragedy. Rescue ops on. Many feared dead,' tweeted Derek O'Brien, a lawmaker and spokesman for the ruling Trinamool Congress Party in West Bengal state, of which Kolkata is the capital.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he was monitoring the situation adding that he was 'deeply saddened to know that precious lives have been lost in the Kolkata accident'.
An eyewitness at the scene described a loud bang 'like a bomb blast and suddenly there was a lot of smoke and dust'.32B2CCC700000578-3516983-image-m-46_1459417555911
'I looked at the other side of the road and people were screaming 'the bridge is collapsing',' the unnamed man told television networks.
The Press Trust of India news agency, citing police, said one person was dead with an unknown number of others trapped.
Kolkata is the venue of this Sunday's World T20 cricket final. 

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