'Death toll could rise' in bridge collapse

At least seven people died when a freeway bridge suddenly broke into huge sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River in the US during rush-hour traffic jams.

Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack said more than 60 people were injured and the death toll could rise.

The Interstate 35W bridge, a major artery through Minneapolis, was in the midst of being repaired when it collapsed.

“There were two lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper, at the point of the collapse. Those cars did go into the river,” Minneapolis Police Lieutenant Amelia Huffman said. “At this point there is nothing to suggest that this was anything other than a structural collapse.”

Jamie Winegar said she was sitting in traffic when she suddenly started hearing “boom, boom, boom and we were just dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping”.

The car she was travelling in landed on top of a smaller car but did not fall into the water. She said her nephew yelled, “’It’s an earthquake!’ and then we realised the bridge was collapsing”.

There were no immediate reports on the total number of injured, but Dr Joseph Clinton, emergency medical chief at Hennepin County Medical Centre, said the hospital treated 28 injured people – including six who were in critical condition.

Other hospitals were also treating the injured. Clinton said at least one of the victims had drowned.

The arched bridge, which was built in 1967, rises about 64 feet (19.5 metres) above the river. An estimated 50 vehicles plunged into the water and on to the land below, the Star-Tribune reported.

A burning lorry and a school bus clung to one slanted slab. The bus had just crossed the bridge before it crumpled into pieces, and broadcast reports indicated the children on the bus escaped out of the back door.

Christine Swift’s 10-year-old daughter, Kaleigh, was on the bus, returning from a field trip to Bunker Hills in suburban Blaine. She said her daughter called her, and “She was screaming, ’The bridge collapsed”’.

She said a police officer told her all the children got off the bus safely.

Dozens of vehicles were scattered and stacked on top of each other amid the rubble. Some people were stranded on parts of the bridge that were not submerged.

Melissa Hughes, 32, said she was driving home across the bridge when she went down when the western edge in the collapse.

“You know that free fall feeling? I felt that twice,” said Hughes, who was not injured.

A pickup truck ended up on top of her car, partially crushing the top and back end.

Ramon Houge told the St Paul Pioneer Press that he was on his way home from work on the bridge when he heard a rumbling noise, saw the ground collapse and cars go down.

Traffic was bumper to bumper and hundreds of people would have been involved, he said.

Local television stations captured video of injured people being carried up the riverbank. Dozens of rescue vehicles were there, and divers were also in the water.

Workers have been repairing the 40-year-old bridge’s surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported on its website.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said the collapse did not appear to be terrorism-related.