Pakistani Bridge Collapse Kills at Least 40

A crowded bridge collapsed Saturday during heavy rain in northwestern Pakistan, flinging pedestrians and cars into a flooded stream. At least 40 people died and three were injured, an official said.

Witnesses in Mardan said about 200 people and a number of vehicles were on the 30-foot-high bridge when it collapsed, apparently because of the torrent of water rushing beneath it.

Rescuers pulled out 40 bodies before the search was called off at nightfall Saturday, the mayor of Mardan, Himayatullah Mayar, said today.

Army troops, aid workers and local residents, using steel cutters, sledge hammers and a crane to break concrete and lift debris, were continuing the search, he said. Relatives of the missing spent the night in the open near the toppled bridge and many were also helping, he said.

“We will continue the search until we are satisfied that there are no bodies in the debris,” Mayar said.

Abdul Wail Khan Yusafzai, the liaison officer of the Flood Warning Center, said the bridge was old and overcrowded, but the primary cause of its collapse was the floodwater.

Ehtisham Khan, a rescue worker, said that three vehicles with bodies inside were buried under the collapsed bridge.

Umair Ali, 23, a college student who lives nearby, estimated that there were 150 to 200 people on the bridge when it collapsed.

“I saw some of them swimming and coming out of the water,” he said.

Ali said he thought that dozens more could be trapped under the debris.

Abid Ali, the city’s police chief, said rescue workers needed heavy machinery and tools to cut through steel and concrete.

Another police official, Mohammed Iftikhar, said other people might have drowned in the swollen stream.

Dozens have died across Pakistan in recent weeks because of landslides and flash floods caused by monsoon rains.

The rains have forced authorities to open the spillway to a major dam near the capital, Islamabad, for the first time in five years.