At least 30 people, most of them children, are feared to have been killed after a suspension footbridge collapsed in eastern India on Saturday, local media reported, quoting police.
The accident occurred in the town of Seppa in the Arunachal Pradesh state at around 5.30 pm local time (12:00 GMT). Some 60-70 children had gathered on the bridge, 70 metres long and 40 feet above the river Kameng, to collect insects which are considered a delicacy in India.
"Till now, we have recovered one body and rescued 27 boys and girls who are being treated [in a local health centre],” the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted a local police officer as saying late on Saturday.
Local people were assisting the police in rescuing others, he said, adding that at least 30 people could have been drowned or swept away by the fast-flowing river.
According to locals, at least five bodies of young boys had been recovered from the river, the report said.
This is the second such incident in the Eastern Himalayas since October 23, when a wooden bridge collapsed near the city of Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, killing at least 34 people and injuring some 130 others who had gathered on the bridge for a rally.
