Divers to investigate sonar echos

Portuguese Navy divers were today preparing to brave a river’s treacherous current and feel their way around metal objects detected by sonar that are believed to be sunken vehicles holding at least 60 bodies from a bridge collapse.

The sonar located the objects just before nightfall on Tuesday, two days after the 116-year-old bridge gave way and tipped a packed tour bus and several cars into the rain-swollen Douro River.

Divers intended to fasten themselves to safety cables suspended from a dredger which was to anchor in the river. The cables were to be hooked to a weight dropped from the dredger to the riverbed.

"It’s going to be a very tricky and dangerous operation," said Navy officer Augusto Ezequiel, at the scene.

Officials could not confirm the shapes on the sonar screen were the vehicles nor could they say whether the bodies were still inside. Divers said low visibility in the muddy water meant they would have to rely on touch to identify the objects.

"We can’t be sure of anything until we have been down to take a look," Ezequiel said.

The strong current and dangerous eddies have slowed efforts to retrieve the dead. Only one body has so far been found - a woman in her 60s who had nine children. She was found on Monday downstream from the bridge.

More than 300 emergency workers have been combing riverbanks near the accident scene but they found only a bus seat 10 miles downstream, increasing concerns the bodies may have been swept away.

Officials said they would examine whether to string a net downstream to catch any floating bodies. The river is several hundred yards wide.

Local people in the nearby rural town of Castelo de Paiva, 180 miles north of Lisbon, have been frustrated by the lack of progress in finding the bodies of their relatives and friends who were returning on the double-decker bus from a day trip.

Some residents have lost as many as nine family members.

The delay also has deepened local anger at the government, which has accepted the blame for the accident because it did not repair the bridge’s weakened structure. One government minister has resigned.

Officials are unsure of the exact death toll because they have no passenger list for the bus, though they estimate 67 were killed. As many as four vehicles may have fallen into the water at the same time as the bus.

Bodies were to be taken to a nearby gymnasium because the village has no morgue.