Guwahati: Five construction workers in Assam’s Karimganj district suffered severe injuries, including one who is in critical condition when a 100-year-old bridge constructed during the British rule collapsed.
The iron bridge is located in Chargola area on National Highway-6. The Karimganj district administration said that an RCC bridge was constructed near the old bridge and they were attempting to reconstruct the old one when the incident took place, reported Hindustan Times.
“The labourers were deconstructing the old bridge when it collapsed. Some of them are severely injured and have been taken to the Karimganj civil hospital,” the district official said.
Additional SP of Karimganj Partha Protim Das said there have been no casualties in the incident.
The injured persons have been identified as Khairul Islam, Rubel Hussain Barbhuiyan, Akhtar Hussain Barbhuiyan, Subodh Das and Chandan Debnath, all aged between 22 and 28 years. They are all residents of Karimganj district, the police said.
According to witnesses, the bridge collapsed on Wednesday about 5:30 pm, and while some workers were able to flee, the rest were thrown into the Kachua River.
The old bridge had to be destroyed physically since, according to the locals, the authorities failed to deploy contemporary technology to demolish it.