TIG Post

Tag: Machchhu river

  • Bodies pulled from water as rescue operations continue

    The BBC’s Roxy Gadekar, who is at the scene, reports that rescue teams are still trying to recover bodies from the river. Most of the bodies being recovered are of women and children.

    Prasanna Kumar, the commander of the National Disaster Response Force, told the BBC that they would continue the operation until everyone has been accounted for.

    “It was difficult at night since the water is stagnant and there is sewage in the river. The visibility was low, so it was difficult to spot bodies,” he said.

    With daybreak, rescue teams were able to look under the wreckage of the broken bridge and found more bodies.

    “We will search the whole river and leave no room for doubt,” he said.

    “Search will continue and we will not rest.”

    Meanwhile, a few stretchers lie on the bank of the river as bodies are pulled by rescue teams from the murky water and brought to shore.

    Parts of a small dam, which is around 500m downstream from the wreckage of the bridge, have been broken to reduce the water level in the river to help rescuers.

    Source: BBC.com

     

  • Bridge collapse tragedy painful: PM Modi

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the tragedy was painful. He added that his thoughts were with the families of the victims.

    “Rarely in my life, would I have experienced such pain. On one hand, there is a pain-riddled heart and on the other hand, there is the path to duty,” he said.

    Expressing his condolences, he pledged the government’s full support to the families of those who died in the accident.

    “All alertness is being observed even in the hospital where the injured are under treatment,” he said.

    Source: BBC.com

     

  • Collapsed bridge opened ‘without fitness certificate’

    The suspension bridge over the Machchhu river was more than a century old.

    “In March this year, it was closed to the public for renovation,” Sandeep Jhala, the chief of the local Morbi municipality, told reporters.

    Mr Jhala says the bridge was reopened to the public after repairs only on 26 October.

    “But the local municipality had not yet issued a fitness certificate (after the renovation work),” he says.

    Mr Jhala told local media that the municipality didn’t know yet “how the bridge collapsed, what was its capacity, whether they had taken any fitness certificate or not, what kind of material was used in it“.

    What happened?

    Reports said several hundred people were on the bridge at the time of the collapse on Sunday.

    A major tourist attraction, the century-old narrow cable bridge, built over the Machchu river, draws tourists in big numbers.

    The bridge was particularly busy this weekend as the Hindu festival season of Diwali and Chhath Puja drew a large number of visitors to the tourist spot, which was reopened to the public only last week.

    Reports say hundreds of families were on the bridge when it collapsed.

    Victims mostly include children, women, and elderly people.

    Videos on social media showed dozens clinging onto the floating wreckage as emergency teams attempted to rescue them. Many children and women, who were stuck, could be heard crying for help.

    Some managed to swim to the river banks.

    At least 141 died and several dozens have been injured.

    Source: BBC.com