India bridge collapse leads to arrest of 9 people as rescuers recount "traumatic" Diwali disaster
CBSN
Morbi, India — Nine people were arrested Monday in connection with the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in western India that killed almost 140 people, police said. The nine people arrested — all associated with a company that maintained the bridge in Morbi — were being investigated for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, senior police officer Ashok Kumar Yadav said in a statement.
The bridge, which had reopened only days earlier after months of renovation, collapsed on Sunday evening, sending hundreds tumbling into the river in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. Authorities said nearly 500 people were celebrating the last day of the Diwali festival on and around the nearly 150-year-old suspension bridge when supporting cables snapped.
CCTV footage showed the structure swaying — with a few people apparently deliberately rocking it — before it suddenly gave way.
