8 killed, many trapped in overpass collapse in eastern India

An overpass collapses while under construction in Kolkata, eastern India, killing at least eight people and injuring scores of others in trapped cars, trucks and other vehicles, officials say.

Army troops join efforts to rescue those trapped inside vehicles that lay under massive concrete blocks and metal debris. Huge cranes and other rescue vehicles reach the site to clear the rubble.

The Press Trust of India news agency, quoting police sources, puts the death toll at eight. More than 40 injured are admitted to two hospitals in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state, hospital officials say.

“The area was very, very crowded. Motorized rickshaws, taxis … there was a lot of traffic,” one witness tells the New Delhi Television news channel, or NDTV.

Another adds: “We heard a loud rumble and then saw a lot of dust in the sky.”

Television images show the bloody legs of some of the trapped people jutting out of the collapsed girders and concrete slabs

In addition to army troops, personnel of the National Disaster Response Force are also working on the scene in Bara Bazaar, a busy residential and shopping area in central Kolkata.

O.P. Singh, the NDRF chief, says the operation is a “very, very challenging task.”

Building collapses are common in India, where builders use poor enforcement of regulations and use substandard materials.

— AP