Varanasi, May 16: Around 30 people are feared dead as a major tragedy struck this holy city on Tuesday evening as a huge girder of an under-construction Chowkaghat-Laharatara flyover collapsed on several vehicles including a roadways bus.
Around 50 people are reported to be still trapped under the collapsed flyover and efforts are on to rescue them.
The incident took place opposite to Gate No. 3 Railway Vasundhara Colony, just about 100 yards away from the Railway station towards Allahabad road.
A government bus with 40 people was totally smashed under the bridge besides several four wheelers and two wheelers were still under the collapsed bridge.
ADG (Varanasi Zone) PV Ramasastry said that the casualty might go up further. He said the first priority of the police was to provide medical help to the injured persons. Meanwhile, hectic work is going on to cut the fallen girder with the help of cutters to bring out trapped persons.
Meanwhile Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said in Lucknow that NDRF has recovered 16 bodies and rescued 5 people.He said 7 NDRF teams of around 325 men deployed for relief operations.Mr Kumar said rescue operations are still on.
The bridge was being constructed by Nirman Nigam, a government organisation.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has set up a high level probe team headed by Agriculture Production Commissioner(APC) Raj Pratap Singh along with chief engineer irrigation department Bhupendra Sharma and Jal Nigam MD Rajesh Mittal. The team will submit its report with 48 hours.
