Skip to main content

32 died in Darjeeling Bridge collapse

At least 32 people have died and 132 injured after a bridge collapsed at a political event in India's tea-producing region of Darjeeling on Saturday night. 

More than 150 villagers were standing on the bridge for talks by local separatist leaders on Saturday night when it collapsed. 

Officials say the victims fell at least 70ft (21m) into the fast-flowing Rangeet Khola river. The army, fire brigade and police helped residents in the rescue effort. Up to 60 people were rescued on Saturday night, but the search on Sunday was mainly focused on areas down river, reports say. 

Government help People had gathered in the village of Bijonbari, 30km (20miles) from Darjeeling, to listen to speeches by leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) party. The GJM is fighting for a separate state for the tea-producing Darjeeling hills.

"A cultural programme was being held on one side of the bridge, while a meeting was being held on the other," GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri said.

"Too many people were standing on it when it collapsed and they fell into the river below." Darjeeling District Magistrate Soumitra Mohan said on Sunday that the death toll had reached 32, with 132 wounded. 

At least six children are among the casualties. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government would do "everything it can" to help the victims and their families. 

The bridge was reportedly built in 1942, and is thought to have been weakened by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that shook north-eastern India, Nepal and Tibet in September this year.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India film industry contributes $6.2 billion in year

India's film and television industry contributes an immense $6.2 billion (Rs 28,305 crores) to the Indian economy, according to a new report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report, titled Economic Contribution of the Indian Film and Television Industry, also finds that the sector has a total gross output of $20.4 billion (Rs 92,645 crores) and contributes more to the GDP of India than the advertising industry. "This report demonstrates the importance of the film and television sector to the overall growth and vitality of the Indian economy. Indians should be proud of the staggering growth that the film and television industry has achieved," said Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chairman Dan Glickman, who launched the report in New Delhi at the Asia Society Conference. "The film and television industry in India is one of the world's largest markets in terms of number of consumers and offers significant growth potential. Over the past fe...
1 comment
Read more

BGB from BDR

No more BDR! Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) has officially been named after Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) today, January 23, 2011.  The renaming, though came into effect after the president signed the bill passed through parliament over a month ago, came on Sunday after prime minister Sheikh Hasina hoisted the BGB flag at its Peelkhana headquarters.  The flag has also been changed a little bit.  Bangladesh's 'first line of defence' went through a few changes, including its name and uniform, with a new law stipulating death for mutiny, apparently to absolve it of the bloody mutiny of Feb 25-26, 2009.   Parliament passed the bill, which was subsequently endorsed by the president on Dec 20 last year , bringing the changes in BDR to rid it of the stigma that would invariably be attached to its name.  But Maj Gen Mohammad Rafiqul Islam at a function on Jan 1 used his old designation as head of BDR since, according to him, 'formalities' to call him the BGB direct...
3 comments
Read more