At least seven people were killed when an interstate bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed Wednesday evening, in what the governor called a “catastrophe of historic proportions.”
The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET) when dozens of cars were on the bridge.
Witnesses described a “dust cloud” as it collapsed, sending cars and and chunks of concrete plunging into the Mississippi River below.
At least 60 people were taken to local hospitals, said Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack. See photos of the disaster »
All survivors have been taken off the bridge, said Minneapolis police Chief Tim Dolan during a news conference Wednesday night. Crews have searched 50 cars and are looking for more possible victims, but the mission has changed from a rescue to a recovery mode.
“We have confirmed that this will be a very tragic night when it is over,” said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.
Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.
“I heard this massive rumbling and shaking basically and looked out my window,” Lacroix said. “It just fell right into the river.” Watch Lacroix describe the collapse »
Another witness was walking on a pedestrian bridge nearby when he saw the disaster.
“There were several cars completely just crushed. … I saw some policeman walk up to the drivers' windows and look and and kept walking on by, so either the person was deceased or not in the car,” Joe Costello said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it saw no indications of terrorism in the incident.
Construction took place on the bridge Tuesday night and was to take place again Wednesday night, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The highway would have been restricted to a single lane in both directions from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. both nights.
The bridge was undergoing redecking work, but nothing structural was being done, U.S. Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said.
There were eight construction workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse, and one of them is unaccounted for, said Mike McGray, president of Progressive Contractors, the company doing the repair work on the bridge.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty said inspections of the 40-year-old bridge in 2005 and 2006 found no structural defects, but a 2001 study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation found “several fatigue problems” in the bridge's approach spans and “poor fatigue details” on the main truss.
The study suggested that the design of bridge's main truss could cause a collapse if one of two support planes were to become cracked, although it allowed that a collapse might not occur in that event. But, the study concluded, “fatigue cracking of the deck truss is not likely” and “replacement of the bridge … may be deferred.”
After the collapse, the nearby University of Minnesota Medical Center received “just a handful” of injuries from the accident, spokesman Ryan Davenport said.
“One of our hospitals has five patients so far, and the other on the other side of the river has none,” he said.
Nancy Ebert of Northwestern Hospital said it had received four injured people — two children and two adults.
Dr. Joseph Clinton, chief of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center, said the hospital is treating 28 injured people, six of them critically hurt.
He also said the hospital received one patient who was pronounced dead on arrival. “We have one drowning victim here, and I believe there are more drowning victims at the scene,” he said.
Witnesses told CNN a school bus filled with children was on the bridge when it collapsed, but they also said the bus did not drop into the water and it appeared that all the children had been evacuated.
Jeff Pearson, regional vice president of First Student, Inc. — which handles school buses in Minneapolis — said that about 60 children, plus teachers, chaperones and a driver, were on the bus and that all were accounted for.
Aerial footage showed the middle of the bridge caved in, lying in the Mississippi River, with cars both on top and submerged in the water. The main part of the collapsed span was not submerged, but the span clearly separated from the land-based sections of the highway on both the north and south ends of the bridge.
A witness said it looked like “toy cars” were plunging into the water.
“I heard a terrible noise, and then I looked. It seemed like a piece of the bridge was pancaking and going down,” said Janet Stately. “I said, 'Did we really see that? Did we really see that?' and it was unbelievable.”
About 100,000 cars a day travel over the bridge, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
