Collapsed Bridge kills 141 people in India

Dozens have died after a pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed in India’s Gujarat state on Sunday

The bridge had been reopened just days earlier after repairs

Reports say hundreds of people were on the bridge to perform rituals for a religious festival

At least 177 people have been rescued so far and search operations are underway for others who are missing

The Gujarat government has ordered an investigation into the incident

Rescuers who were in the vicinity of the collapsed Indian bridge used makeshift ropes made of torn clothing to pull out more than 160 people from the river, a witness has said.

Kantilal Amrutiya, a former legislator from the Bharatiya Janata Party, told Newsmen that he saw the bridge falling and managed to film and send out a video to local people to ask for help.

He explains that those near the bridge called the authorities immediately after it collapsed, but then entered the water themselves to save those at risk of drowning.

Mr Amrutiya says they were able to pull around 160 people from the river.

“We pulled them out with our shirts which we tore and made makeshift ropes. We also came with rubber tubes and threw it to some people to hold on.”

“We also came with rubber tubes and threw it to some people to hold on.”

While official updates are still awaited, Indian engineers believed that the suspension bridge – a bridge in which the deck is hung below cables on vertical suspenders – in Morbi may have collapsed due to poor maintenance.

“This is a 140-year-old bridge. You have to do regular, high-quality maintenance. The bearings, joints and rivets of the bridge have to be checked regularly. In India, we are not very rigorous about maintenance,” says Achyut Ghosh, a professor of structural engineering and a bridge expert.

Rahul Raj, a Delhi-based architect, says the quality of maintenance of infrastructure in India is “often compromised because the job goes to a

But Mr Ghosh said that hundreds of people standing on a suspension bridge was not likely to hurt the structure. “Bridges are designed and built for a lot of loading,”

“But what people should not be doing is marching in unison on the suspension bridge.” He said.

It is not clear whether people were doing that on the bridge in Morbi before it collapsed.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office has announced that he will visit the town of Morbi in Gujarat, where a bridge collapse has killed 141 people.