Rescue teams resumed search operation Wednesday morning to find people who had gone missing after a suspension bridge collapsed, Tuesday afternoon, in Bheri River in far-west Surkhet killing at least 16 people, mostly women and children, and injuring scores of others.
Reports coming in say separate teams of Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, Maoist workers and members of Nepal Red Cross Society started searching for survivors from both sides of the wide river from 7 in the morning Wednesday. More than 70 people are feared to be still missing after the bridge collapsed into the river.
The rescue teams, however, say that the possibility of finding any survivor is slowly becoming dim.
Hundreds of locals have gathered near the banks of the river and few among them have been immersing themselves in the river in a desperate attempt to find their loved ones who have gone missing since Tuesday and are feared dead. The whole Mehalkuna bazaar located nearby the river wears a mournful look because of the incident.
Surkhet's Chief District Officer Anil Kumar Pandey said the 32 injured (20 women and 12 men) in the Bheri bridge tragedy are currently admitted in Surkhet Hospital and that the condition of 4 among them is very critical. He said they will very soon be flown to Kathmandu on an army helicopter for emergency treatment.
The suspension bridge over the Bheri River at Shobhaghat near Mehalkuna bazaar, Surkhet district had collapsed at 2 pm Tuesday afternoon due to overload throwing hundreds of people into the river. The bridge was built only last year.
A huge crowd of people were passing through the bridge to attend the local fair at Subaghat when the bridge collapsed.
Rescue teams, on Tuesday, helped some 40 people swim ashore while other 150 are said to have swum on their own.
Earlier some reports had said that up to 600 people had gone missing but the reports could not be confirmed.
CDO Pandey said that due to conflicting reports they haven't still been able to come up with the exact number of people who had gone missing after the collapse of Bheri bridge.
Meanwhile, police have identified 11 of the 15 bodies recovered from the river Tuesday evening. They include Laxmi Sunar (65) and Chandra Kala Gurung (34) of Gumi-4, Surkhet; Raju Pariyar (18) of Gumi-2; Mira Gurung (35) of Khajura, Banke; Nani Sunar (5) of Gumi-5; Yamuna Rish (5) of Gumi-3, Sheragaon; Sirjana Oli (6) of Ghumkhare-5; Khadka Bahadur B.K (17) of Dahachaur 1; Ashmita Sharma (10) of Dahachaur-8; Bishnu Darlami (20) of Dahachaur 1 and one four year old son of Bhakta Bahadur Tamata of Dahachaur-6.
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