Nine killed in Minneapolis road bridge collapse
UNITED STATES: A highway bridge collapsed and hurled vehicles
into the Mississippi River in central Minneapolis during evening rush
hour on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring dozens, officials
said.
Cars were crushed under huge slabs of concrete, flipped onto their
roofs or thrown in the river as the 40-year-old bridge, packed with
vehicles in nose-to-tail commuter traffic, collapsed with a thunderous
roar.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington said there was
no indication of terrorism in the disaster.
“It will be a very tragic night when it is over,” Minneapolis mayor
R.T. Ryback told reporters. “Obviously this is a catastrophe of historic
proportions,” added Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
The 500-foot span of the steel and concrete bridge, which carried an
eight-lane highway and was under repair, buckled and fell into the river
and onto concrete embankments at about 6:05 p.m. CDT (2305 GMT).
The span had stood about 65 feet above the river.
Minneapolis city officials said more than 60 people had been taken to
local hospitals. Seven people were confirmed dead, but they said they
expected that number to rise.
Dr. Joseph Clifton told reporters that his hospital, Hennepin County
Medical Center, had taken in 22 injured, six of them in critical
condition.
One man was dead on arrival, having drowned. “Most were blunt-type
injuries, in the face and extremities,” Clifton said, adding many
suffered internal injuries.
More patients, and deaths, were expected, he said.
“I saw them carrying up a body — I don’t know if he was alive or
dead,” said Andy Schwich, who arrived at the scene on his bicycle a few
minutes after the collapse.
A truck was exploding in fireballs, he said, and there were numerous
cars either on the remnants of the bridge or in the river.
The cause of the disaster was not yet known, state police said.
Gov. Pawlenty said the bridge, which was built in 1967, was inspected
in 2005 and 2006 and the Minnesota Department of Transportation found no
structural defects. Work was being done on the concrete surface, signs
and guardrails.
Ryback said some 50 cars involved in the collapse had been searched
by rescue workers.
Rescue boats and divers searched the water on a hot evening as
thunderstorms threatened the area.
One yellow school bus carrying about 60 children had a narrow escape,
remaining intact despite the destruction around it. All those on board
were rescued, although 10 were taken to the hospital for treatment.
A freight train was passing on a track running under the bridge when
it collapsed, and the train was cut in two, WCCO television reported.
Witnesses said they heard a rumbling sound as the bridge collapsed.
“First I heard this huge roar,” Leone Carstens, a nearby resident,
told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I was at my computer. Initially I
thought, Wow was that an airplane?”
Steel pilings stuck out at angles from the riverbed, huge chunks of
concrete appeared to be floating in the debris-strewn water, and plumes
of smoke rose from the site, a Reuters eyewitness said.
One witness said she saw people swimming in the water seeking safety
and half-submerged vehicles.
Injured survivors were led or carried up the embankment.
The state transport agency said 200,000 cars a day use the steel arch
bridge.
In a similar disaster in June 1983, three people were killed when a
section of bridge collapsed over a river on the I-95, the major U.S.
East Coast highway, in Connecticut.
Minneapolis, Thursday, Reuters |