Peshawar (Pakistan): A search resumed on Sunday for people missing after a crowded bridge collapsed in heavy rains in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 40 people, an official said.
The 10-meter (30-foot)-high bridge collapsed in Mardan, a city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad.
Witnesses said about 200 people and some vehicles were on the bridge when it fell, flinging pedestrians and cars into the flood waters below.
Rescuers pulled out 40 bodies before the search was called off at nightfall on Saturday, the mayor of Mardan, Himayatullah Mayar, said on Sunday.
Army troops, civilian aid workers and local residents, using steel cutters, sledge hammers and a crane to break concrete and lift debris, were searching Sunday for the missing people, he said.
Relatives of the missing people spent the night in the open near the toppled bridge and many were helping in the search, he said.
Mayar said the exact number of missing was not known, citing discrepancies in how many were reported to be on the bridge when it collapsed.
''We will continue the search until we are satisfied that there are no bodies in the debris,'' Mayar said.
Three vehicles were buried in debris from the bridge, with bodies trapped inside, rescue worker Ehtisham Khan said on Saturday.
Police official Mohammed Iftikhar said others may have drowned in the swollen stream.
Dozens of people have died across Pakistan in recent weeks due to monsoon rains, landslides and flash floods.
The rains have forced authorities to open the spillway to a major dam near Islamabad for the first time in five years.
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