Scores die in Vietnam bridge collapse
Up to 100 people feared dead in southern Vietnam after bridge collapses
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Wednesday, 26, Sep 2007 12:17
Up to 100 people are feared dead in Vietnam after an under construction suspension bridge collapsed.
The Japanese-funded bridge, which would have become the largest in the south-east Asian country, fell apart at 08:00 local time (02:00 BST) with more than 250 engineers and workers standing on it.
State-run television footage showed rescuers pulling survivors and bloodied victims from the wreckage; a mass of twisted steel and concrete.
"They are still pulling out bodies from the rubble, I could hear the screams," a worker told the Reuters news agency.
A local police chief told al-Jazeera that the scene was "total chaos".
"It sounded like a huge explosion," Le Viet Hung said. "It's the biggest accident I've ever seen."
State broadcasters say that 48 people have been confirmed as dead following the collapse, while constructors put the deathtoll at 60. More than 100 workers remain unaccounted for.
Scheduled to be completed next year, the unfinished bridge would have linked the Mekong delta with the country's financial hub at Ho Chi Minh City in the south.