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26-12-2024
BRASILIA: There are fears of water contamination after a bridge collapsed in northern Brazil at the weekend, sending Lorries carrying thousands of litres of pesticides and sulphuric acid into the river below.
Four people are known to have died, and more than 10 are missing after the central span of the bridge linking Tocantins and Maranhao states gave way on Sunday afternoon.
It is not clear if or how much the chemicals have leaked from their containers, but diving operations in the river have been halted while the situation is assessed.
Dramatic video filmed by a local councilor who went to the bridge to draw attention to cracks in it showed the start of the collapse.
Councilor Elias Junior said he never expected the bridge to actually collapse when he was there and was “in shock”.
Eight vehicles plunged into the river, including the three Lorries containing chemicals.
People in the cities of Estreito and Aguiarnopolis, on either side of the river, have been told to avoid collecting water from it.
Rescue operations are being carried out from boats. Four bodies have been recovered, including the female driver of one of the trucks and an 11-year-old girl, the fire service said. One man was rescued alive from the water on Sunday.
The Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge which is more than half a kilometre (1,600ft) long was built in the 1960s and is the main link between the two states across the Tocantins River.
Three trucks, two carrying sulfuric acid and one carrying pesticides were among eight vehicles carried down into the Tocantins River when the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge collapsed on Sunday.
Those heavy vehicles were transporting a total of “22,000 liters of agricultural pesticides and 76 tonnes sulfuric acid, a corrosive chemical product,” Brazil’s National Water Agency said.
It was not yet known if the acid had seeped out of the trucks and into the river. Water analyses were being carried out.
In the meantime, rescuers were operating cautiously, using boats and not sending in any divers.
River water supplies to nearby communities were also suspended.
The fire service attending the scene said four bodies had been recovered, including the woman driver of one of the acid-transporting trucks, and an 11-year-old girl.
On Sunday, a 36-year-old man was rescued alive.
The bridge, built in the 1960s and more than half a kilometre long, was the main link between Brazil’s states of Tocantins and Maranhao.
The causes of the collapse were being investigated, but initial indications were that the bridge’s central beam gave way.
The day before the collapse, a local man had published an online video showing visible cracks in the bridge and warning that there was imminent danger.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday promised on the X social media platform that his federal government would provide all necessary aid in the rescue operation and the investigation.
The collapse came on top of two other deadly transport accidents in Brazil over the weekend. The country’s worst highway accident in 17 years happened on Saturday when a bus crashed and caught on fire, killing 41 people in the southeast state of Minas Gerais. On Sunday, a private plane crashed into the city of Gramado in south Brazil, killing a family of 10 on board. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
