At least 18 people die in Vietnam bridge collapse
HANOI (AFP) - - At least 18 people died Wednesday morning following the collapse of a bridge under construction in southern Vietnam, police said.
“The death toll of the accident has reached at least 18, while many other people are still stuck under the collapsed bridge,” Vu Duc Hung, head of Can Tho province’s water traffic police, told AFP.
Vietnamese national television VTV said more than 100 people have been injured, almost half of them in serious condition. Le Tan Hoc, director of the provincial department for Public Works, earlier said that at least 60 injured people had already been sent to hospitals.
About 250 workers and engineers were working on the Can Tho bridge when the accident happened, Hoc told AFP.
“The top priority now is rescue work,” said Ngo Thinh Duc, vice-minister of Transport, on VTV. “The most difficult thing now is to dismantle the huge fallen concrete blocks to save people underneath.”
He said about 150 military personnel have been mobilized.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, currently in New York for the United nations general assembly, sent an urgent message asking authorities to instigate a major rescue operation and investigate the cause of the accident.
Officials did not immediately explained why the accident happened.
But the online VNExpress quoted police sources as saying a weak scaffolding system fell down, leading to the collapse of parts of the bridge that were only set in concrete on Tuesday.
The bridge is planned to cross the Hau river and link Can Tho and Vinh Long provinces. The accident occurred on the Vinh Long province side of the 16-kilometre bridge, and not in Can Tho province as previously said, Hung told AFP.
The newspaper website quoted Manh Hung, a worker and witness of the accident as saying workers heard a very loud noise at one end of the bridge.
“Workers started shouting. The scene was terrible as a giant concrete block fell onto so many people working underneath,” he said.
The online VNExpress said construction on the site started in September 2004. The 300-million dollar bridge, built with Official Development Assistance from the Japanese government, was expected to be completed next year, it added.
The Japanese embassy in Hanoi was not immediately available for comments.
“We have not known of any foreign engineers among the victims,” police officer Hung told AFP from the site.