SAO PAULO (AP) — A bridge connecting two northern states in Brazil collapsed, killing at least two people and leaving a dozen others missing, police said Monday. A sulfuric acid leak complicates the rescue operation.
Footage obtained by local residents showed cars and trucks crossing the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge when large parts ended up in a river on Sunday.
Police operating at the border of the northern states of Maranhao and Tocantins said eight vehicles were missing: four trucks, two cars and two motorcycles. Police and Brazil’s highway department said they have started an investigation into the matter.
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The 533-meter-long bridge between the cities of Estreito and Aguiarnopolis was built in the 1960s and is located 1,300 kilometers north of the capital Brasilia.
Magnum Coelho, a colonel at the local fire brigade office, told journalists that sending divers for rescue operations is dangerous because the Tocantins River could be contaminated by sulfuric acid from one of the missing trucks that fell from the bridge.
The bridge collapse was one of several tragedies that occurred in Brazil this weekend. On Saturday, an accident involving a passenger bus and a truck killed dozens of people on a highway in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil. On Sunday evening, authorities confirmed that the number of deaths had risen to 41.
Local authorities said Sunday that the truck driver is at large and could face criminal liability due to the alleged overweight of the load that may have caused the crash.
The Minas Gerais state fire brigade said several people were taken to hospitals near the town of Teofilo Otoni. The bus had reportedly left Sao Paulo carrying 45 passengers.
Also on Sunday, at least 10 people died after a small plane crashed in Gramado, a southern city popular with tourists. More than a dozen people were injured on the ground, Brazil’s Civil Protection Agency said.
The plane was piloted by Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, a Brazilian businessman who was traveling to the state of Sao Paulo with his family. Brazil’s Civil Protection Agency said the plane hit the chimney of a house and then the second floor of a building before crashing into a cellphone store.
