30 soldiers drown after Indian bridge collapse

A rain-swollen river collapsed a bridge in northern India today, washing away 30 soldiers who were working on the span, an official said.

All the soldiers were feared drowned in the river that snakes through the foothills of the Himalayas, said Amandeep Garg, the deputy commissioner of Kinnore district in the northern Himachal Pradesh state.

The soldiers were rebuilding a bridge damaged in June by monsoon floods in Kinnore district, about 110 miles north of Simla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh.

The region was cut off by road because of heavy rains over the past three days.

A rescue helicopter couldn’t land in the region because of bad weather, Garg said.

India’s monsoon season begins in June and ends in September.