MORBI, India –
Police in western India arrested nine people on Monday as they investigated the collapse of a newly repaired 143-year-old suspension bridge in one of the country’s worst accidents in years, authorities said. Sunday night’s collapse in Gujarat state plunged hundreds of people into a river, killing at least 134.
As families mourned the dead, attention turned to why the footbridge, built during British colonialism in the late 19th century and touted by the state’s tourism website as an “artistic and technological marvel,” collapsed. and who could be responsible. The bridge had reopened just four days earlier.
Inspector General Ashok Yadav said police have formed a special investigation team and those arrested include managers of the bridge operator Oreva Group and its staff.
“We will not let the guilty get away, we will not spare anyone,” Yadav said.
Gujarat authorities opened a case against Oreva for alleged manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and other offences.
In March, the local municipality of Morbi awarded a 15-year contract to maintain and manage the bridge to Oreva, a group of companies known mainly for making watches, mosquito killers and electric bicycles. The same month, Oreva closed the bridge, which spans a wide section of the Machchu River, for repairs.
The bridge has been repaired several times in the past and many of its original parts have been replaced over the years.
It was reopened nearly seven months later on October 26, the first day of the Gujarati New Year, which coincides with the Hindu festival season, and the attraction attracted hundreds of tourists.
Sandeepsinh Zala, a Morbi official, told the Indian Express newspaper that the company reopened the bridge without first obtaining a “fitness certificate”. That could not be independently verified, but officials said they were investigating.
Authorities said the structure collapsed under the weight of hundreds of people. Security video of the disaster showed it shaking violently and people trying to grab onto cables and metal fences before the aluminum walkway gave way and crashed into the river.
The bridge split in half with its walkway hanging down, its cables snapped.
Police said at least 134 people were confirmed dead and many others were admitted to hospitals in critical condition. Rescuers and first responders worked through the night and throughout Monday to search for survivors. State Minister Harsh Sanghvi said most of the victims were teenagers, women and the elderly.
At least 177 survivors were pulled from the river, said Jigar Khunt, an intelligence department official in Gujarat. It was unclear how many people were on the bridge when it collapsed and how many were still missing, but survivors said it was so dense that people were unable to quickly escape when the cables began to break.
“There were too many people on the bridge. We could hardly move,” said Sidik Bai, 27, as he recovered from his injuries at a Morbi hospital.
Sidik said he jumped into the water when the bridge began to crack and saw his friend get crushed by the metal walkway. He survived by clinging to the bridge cables.
“Everyone was screaming for help, but one by one they started disappearing into the water,” Sidik said.
Local news channels carried images of the missing shared by concerned relatives, and family members rushed to overcrowded hospitals in search of their loved ones.
Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was visiting the state at the time of the accident. He said he was “deeply saddened by the tragedy” and his office announced compensation for the families of the dead and called for swift rescue efforts.
“Rarely in my life would I have experienced such pain,” Modi said during a public event in the state on Monday.
Modi was Gujarat’s top elected official for 12 years before becoming India’s prime minister in 2014. Gujarat state government elections are expected in the coming months and opposition parties have demanded a full investigation into the crash.
The bridge collapse was Asia’s third major disaster involving large crowds in a month.
On Saturday, a wave of Halloween crowds killed more than 150 people attending the festivities in Itaewon, a neighborhood in Seoul, South Korea. On October 1, Indonesian police fired tear gas at a soccer match, causing a crowd that killed 132 people as spectators tried to flee.
India’s infrastructure has long been plagued by security issues, and Morbi has suffered from other major disasters. In 1979, an upstream dam on the Machchu River broke, sending walls of water into the city and killing hundreds of people in one of India’s largest dam failures.
In 2001, thousands of people died in an earthquake in Gujarat. Morbi, 150 kilometers (85 miles) from the epicenter of the quake in Bhuj, suffered widespread damage. According to a report in the Times of India newspaper, the bridge that collapsed on Sunday was also heavily damaged.