KARACHI, 2 September 2007 — At least six people were killed and several wounded when a portion of Northern Bypass Bridge caved in at Paracha Chowk in Sher Shah area of Karachi yesterday.
Gov. Sindh Dr. Ishratul Ibad has announced monetary compensation for the families of those killed in the incident.
Karachi’s Mayor Mustafa Kamal said the bridge was built by the state-run National Highway Authority and inaugurated by President Pervez Musharraf on Aug. 6.
Rescuers were trying to clear the wreckage to retrieve survivors amid fears the death toll could rise since 20-25 people were still trapped under the debris, sources said.
Television pictures showed at least two cars and a cart crushed under the huge slab of concrete and there were fears more dead could be under the collapsed bridge.
“We can see some vehicles under the rubble but it’s difficult to say how many people are trapped,” said Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi. “A trailer, a tanker and a police van came down with the bridge and fell on vehicles on the road below,” he said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse of the overpass in the outskirts of the city. Witnesses said a portion of the bridge fell with a huge bang while traffic was on it. “It created such a huge sound that we thought it was an earthquake,” said one resident.
Senior police official Falak Khurshid said four bodies had been retrieved and he saw two more — of a man and a child — trapped in the mangled mass of concrete.
Police official Khalid Hameed told AFP more than a dozen people were wounded in the collapse, adding that several vehicles were trapped in the debris.
A teenage boy, Ehsan Ellahi, said he was passing under the bridge on his donkey-driven cart when the structure caved in.
“It sounded as if a huge bomb had exploded. I was trapped inside,” Ellahi told AFP at the scene.
He said he was lucky because he was at the edge of the road and managed to crawl out of the debris but his donkey was crushed. Earlier, Mohammed Iqbal, a survivor who escaped through the window of a small bus that fell from the bridge, told the private Geo news channel that some other passengers were still trapped in vehicles and under masonry and he had heard their cries for help.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz expressed sorrow over the loss of life and concern over the quality of construction of the bridge.
Musharraf expressed his grief over the incident and ordered an immediate inquiry into the causes of the collapse, an official statement said.
“Investigations have been ordered to find the reasons of the collapse and people responsible for substandard construction would be taken to task,” Aziz said.
Angry relatives of casualties from the accident were throwing stones at police and paramilitary security forces deployed at the scene. Police used mild baton charge to disperse the stone-throwing crowd angry at slow rescue efforts at collapsed bridge.
