The bridge was built in the 1940s, authorities say
The bridge was built in the 1940s, authorities say

NEW DELHI (Diya TV) — A British colonial era bridge has collapsed in India, leaving almost two dozen people missing and two others dead. The bridge is located on a highway that connects the cities of Mumbai and Goa.

Buses were sent tumbling down into the water after the bridge gave way around 2 a.m. local time Wednesday, said Rakesh Ranjan, deputy commandant of the National Disaster Response Force and Civil Defense.

The state passenger buses were carrying 22 people: 18 passengers, two conductors and two drivers.

Two bodies have been recovered so far, Ranjan said.

Flooding of the Savitri River caused the collapse, Chief Minister of Maharashtra state Devandra Fadnavis said in a video statement on Facebook. The one-lane bridge was built during British-era colonial times.

Fadnavis said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “assured all help from the central government.”

India has been hit be severe flooding in the last several days, it has killed 96 people and forced one million residents into relief camps. Downpours have damaged swaths of land, uprooted trees and snapped telephone cables in dozens of districts in the states of Bihar in the east, Assam in the remote northeast and Himachal Pradesh in the north.

At least 17 rare one-horned rhinos have been killed due to the flooding of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, said Pramilla Rani Brahma, the state’s forest and environment minister. “Most of the rhinos killed are calves, separated from their mothers during the massive flooding,” Brahma said.

The park had 5-foot-high floodwaters in some places, forcing many of the park’s animals, also including wild elephants, wild buffaloes and boars, to cross a highway to move to higher ground.

The heavy monsoon rains have come after two straight years of drought in India.