9held as Guj footbridge collapse toll rises to 134, search enters third day

Pvt Firm Mgrs, Ticket Clerks Among Arrested

Morbi: Bodies piled up overnight in graveyards and crematoriums of this historical Gujarat town, famous for its clocks and ceramics, as the toll in Sunday's suspension footbridge collapse mounted to 134 including 48 children amid a continued search for more victims and improbable survivors in the algae covered Machchhu river.

Nine people were arrested, two of them managers of the Oreva Group that recently renovated the 143-year-old British-built footbridge, and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder after the district administration filed an FIR that doesn't name the company or any individual. Two ticketing clerks, two sub-contractors and three security guards make up the rest.

IGP refuses to say why senior officials not named in FIR 

Morbi: IGP (Rajkot range) Ashok Yadav said the arrests for Sunday’s footbridge collapse were based on the known facts of the case so far, declining to say why nobody from the senior management of Oreva, makers of Ajanta clocks, had been mentioned in the FIR. “Whoever is found responsible will be named as the probe proceeds,” he said.

As the clamour to fix responsibility for the tragedy mounted, Morbi was left counting its dead as military divers scoured the 25-footdeep river for bodies of those missing since the bridge collapsed. Police claimed all those missing had been accounted for, the search will resume Wednesday, officials said.