At least 16 Dead in Nepal After Foot Bridge Collapses

NEW DELHI, Dec. 26, 2007 — -- Bridges have given so much to Nepal's isolated villagers. But on Christmas Day, one bridge took entire families away.

A 400-foot long bridge over the Bheri River in Chunchu collapsed in the afternoon, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 50. Anywhere from 30 to 100 people were initially reported as missing.

Hundreds of police officers, soldiers, and locals are searching the river's icy waters for any survivors. But the current is strong, and there is little hope to find anyone alive, officials say.Some bodies were found 3 miles downstream from the bridge.

"Most people did not know what happened. The bridge collapsed and most people on the crowded bridge fell in the river," 20-year-old Durga Bika told Associated Press from his hospital bed in Katmandu. "The bridge was on top of me and my leg was caught. My friends pulled me out and saved me."

Most of the victims are women and children. The youngest was only 5 years old.

"I heard a sound like a bomb explosion," 10-year-old Rabindra Buda told IANS after he had been pulled out of the river. "Then the bridge started swaying. I felt myself falling and hit the water. You couldn't see the river any more. It was full of human heads."

"Some children have lost both parents, and definitely they will need long-term support for their education and their livelihoods," Mohan Chaudhary, Save the Children's Disaster, Preparedness and Response Project Manager told ABC News.

As many as 500 people were walking across the bridge toward a monthly, full-moon festival when its steel cables gave way, plunging most of the bridge into the water about 100 feet below.

"We still don't know exactly how many people are missing so we have sent teams to nearby villages to get information from families on whether they have not heard from their relatives," chief government administrator Anil Pandey told the AP.

Nepal's villages are separated by mountains and the rivers that run through them. There is little to no access to paved roads, so residents rely on their feet -- and a relatively new network of 1,000 bridges throughout the country.

In all, at least 45 miles of bridges have opened villages up to the outside world, reduced prices by giving farmers easier routes to deliver produce, and saved lives by making hospitals more accessible.

The bridge in Chunchu, about 310 miles west of Katmandu, was born out of peace. It was built just last year after the government signed an ceasefire agreement with Maoist rebels, who have waged a decade-long insurgency that devastated much of the country's infrastructure. Rebels have destroyed bridges and roads in order to isolate government troops.

This time, the bridge fell because it was not designed to support the weight of so many people.

But the Maoists are not completely innocent in this disaster, critics say. Chaudhary accuses the bridge's contractor of skimping on construction in order to pay bribes to the rebels. "At that time the Maoists were intimidating the people and the contractor was supposed to provide to the Maoists a portion of the money, and because of that the quality was not maintained," he said.

The bridge collapsed just one day after Nepal's government took a historic decision to abolish its monarchy. Under the deal, agreed to by the rebels, Nepal will become a republic after a general election scheduled for next year.

This afternoon the government released a statement promising an investigation into the incident. It also promised to pay $400 to each of the victims' families.

But for many of the survivors, nothing will ever be the same."For their recovery, we'll need to help reconstruct their lives," Chaudhary said.