27 November 2024,   01:39
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India bridge collapse leads to arrest of 9 people

Nine people were arrested in connection with the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in western India that killed almost 140 people, police said. All arrested people associated with a company that maintained the bridge in Morbi.

The bridge, which had reopened only days earlier after months of renovation, collapsed on Sunday evening, sending hundreds tumbling into the river in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Authorities said nearly 500 people were celebrating the last day of the Diwali festival on and around the nearly 150-year-old suspension bridge when supporting cables snapped.

CCTV footage showed the structure swaying - with a few people apparently deliberately rocking it - before it suddenly gave way.

The walkway and one fence crashed into the Machchhu river, leaving the other side dangling in mid-air as people fell into the water in the dark.

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