Image: Rescue workers search for bodies at the site of a collapsed bridge at Bijonbari village in Darjeeling district
Photographs: Reuters
Photographs: Reuters
With eight more people on Sunday succumbing to injuries, the toll in the wooden footbridge collapse in West Bengal's Darjeeling district rose to 34. More than 100 people were injured in the mishap.
The old wooden footbridge over Little Ranget spring at Bijanbari gave way under pressure of a crowd during a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha meeting nearby at Bijanbari on Saturday.
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32 killed, 100 hurt as bridge collapses in Darjeeling
Image: The footbridge had been weakened by the September 18 earthquakePhotographs: Reuters
Darjeeling Chief Medical Officer Health Subir Bhowmick said eight more persons died, taking the toll to 32. The CMOH said over 100 people were injured in the mishap. The seriously injured were rushed to North Bengal Medical College Hospital in Siliguri and Darjeeling Hospital.
The wooden footbridge, which had been weakened by the September 18 earthquake, collapsed when a large number of people gathered on it for the GJM meeting.
32 killed, 100 hurt as bridge collapses in Darjeeling
Image: Relatives of a man who was injured after a bridge collapsed at Bijonbari village, is helped inside a hospital in DarjeelingPhotographs: Reuters
Army personnel of the Mountain Brigade and the army medical corps have joined fire brigade, police and disaster management personnel in the rescue operation, district administration officials said.
The army has pressed a number of ambulances into service and is also providing medicines. Some of the injured were also admitted to Army hospital in Darjeeling, they said.
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