1 catastrophe, 54 children killed

Ahmedabad/Morbi: We were searching for survivors of the Morbi bridge collapse when a small hand, tightly clutching a toy, broke through the murky waters.

My heart froze. It was the body of a nine-year-old girl. We pulled her onto our rescue boat, but it was too late. I have never handled such an operation in my life. By 10.30pm, we had retrieved bodies of several children, barely in their teens, out of the Machchhu river,” recollects regional fire officer Anil Maru, tears rolling down his cheeks as he narrated details of the rescue work on Sunday.

The disaster led to the deaths of 135 people, of which 54 were children – 33 of whom were aged 10 years or younger – will go down in Gujarat’s history as the single biggest civic disaster that claimed the lives of children in such a large number. Thirty-eight boys and 16 girls died in the tragedy. The youngest victim was 2-year-old Duruk Jhala.