KOLKATA: Indian police said Saturday that they are investigating possible murder charges against 10 construction company employees who have been either arrested or detained in connection with the collapse of an unfinished overpass in Kolkata that killed at least 26 people.

On Saturday three employees of the construction firm that was building the ill-fated flyover appeared in court facing four initial charges including murder, a public prosecutor said.

The three appeared at the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Kolkata after being arrested Friday over the disaster, which saw a 100-meter section of the flyover crash down onto a street below, crushing pedestrians and vehicles.

“All the accused were produced in court today. The charges against the accused are conspiracy, attempt to murder, murder and mischief,” Pijush Kanti Mondal, chief public prosecutor, told AFP.

“In the case of murder, (if convicted) they can face life imprisonment or a death sentence,” Mondal said.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of the opposition Congress party, visited the site on Saturday and met with injured victims recuperating at a city hospital. The disaster is the latest in a string of deadly construction accidents in India, where enforcement of safety rules is weak and substandard materials are often used.

Rescuers continued clearing rubble from the scene of Thursday’s accident. Sixty-nine people have been pulled out alive, but authorities said they doubted more survivors would be found.

Police believe there may be more bodies under the debris.

While most of the injured have been discharged from the hospital, 18 were still undergoing treatment, Chakraborty said.

IVRCL Infrastructure, based in the southern city of Hyderabad, was contracted in 2007 to build the overpass, a project that was expected to take two years. But construction was far behind schedule.

The overpass had spanned nearly the width of the street and was designed to ease traffic through Kolkata’s densely crowded Bara Bazaar neighborhood. The structure fell within hours of concrete being poured into a framework of steel girders on Thursday.

“We completed nearly 70 percent of the construction work without any mishap,” IVRCL official K.P. Rao said Thursday. “We have to go into the details to find out whether the collapse was due to any technical or quality issue.” Rao was not among those detained on Friday.

Two West Bengal state engineers overseeing the construction of the overpass were suspended from jobs pending an inquiry into the disaster, a state government statement said.

Around 100 residents of several buildings located close to the collapsed overpass have been ordered to vacate the buildings, where some of them have been living for generations.