At least 137 people died in western India when a colonial-era pedestrian bridge packed with revelers collapsed into the river below, police said yesterday.
Nearly 500 people were celebrating the last day of the Diwali festival on and around the nearly 150-year-old suspension bridge in Morbi when supporting cables snapped after dark on Sunday.
CCTV footage showed the structure in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat swaying — with a few people apparently deliberately rocking it — before it suddenly gave way.
Photo: AFP
The walkway and one fence crashed into the river, leaving the other side dangling in mid-air and hundreds of people in the water.
“I saw the bridge collapse before my eyes,” said one witness who worked all night on rescue efforts, without giving his name.
“It was traumatic when a woman showed me a photo of her daughter and asked if I had rescued her. I could not tell her that her daughter had died,” he said.
News reports showed footage of people clinging onto the twisted remains of the bridge or trying to swim to safety in the dark.
Many Indians cannot swim and another Morbi resident, Ranjanbhai Patel, said he helped pull out those who had been able to reach the banks.
Local police chief P. Dekavadiya said that by yesterday afternoon, the death toll had risen to 137. They included about 50 children, the youngest being a two-year-old boy.
The bridge over the Machchhu River, a popular tourist spot, had only reopened several days earlier, after months of repairs.
Authorities launched a rescue operation following the collapse, with boats and divers searching the river all night and yesterday.
The bridge, 233m long and 1.5m wide, was inaugurated in 1880 by British colonial authorities and made with materials shipped from England, reports said.
Taipei yesterday sent its sympathies to India.
“The thoughts and prayers of the government & people of Taiwan go out to those affected by the tragic bridge collapse in Gujarat. We grieve with India at this time of loss & sadness,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Twitter.
The ministry said it has also conveyed its condolences to India Taipei Association Director-General Gourangalal Das.
No Taiwanese have so far been found to be among the casualties, the ministry said.
In case of emergency, Taiwanese in Inda are advised to call the 91-981-050-2610 emergency hotline for its representative office in India, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS