French bridge collapse kills 15-year-old girl
A 15-year-old girl was killed after a suspension bridge over a river in southwest France collapsed, causing a car, a truck and possibly a third vehicle to plunge into the water, local authorities said.
Four people were rescued but several others were feared missing after the collapse of the bridge between Mirepoix-sur-Tarn and Bessières, 18 miles north of Toulouse, said the Haute-Garonne department’s security chief, Étienne Guyot.
The central part of the 155-metre (510-foot) bridge, measuring 6.5 metres wide, was submerged by the fast-flowing Tarn river.
A car bonnet could be seen sticking out of the water as helicopters circled overhead and emergency workers in inflatable boats searched for survivors.
More than 60 emergency service members, including divers, were taking part in the rescue operation, Guyot said, adding there were “probably several missing”.
Among those feared missing were the truck driver and the driver of a potential third vehicle, Guyot said, adding that witnesses had reported seeing a van on the bridge.
The girl who died was travelling by car across the bridge with her mother when it collapsed. Her body was retrieved from the river, which is 100 metres wide and more than 20 metres deep at the level of the bridge.
The girl’s mother was pulled alive from the sunken car by bystanders, some of whom were injured in the rescue attempt. Two rescue workers were also seriously hurt, according to the region’s security department.
An investigation into the cause of the accident was under way.
The bridge, built in 1931, had a load limit of 19 tonnes and was checked regularly, Guyot said.
The Haute-Garonne department council said the bridge had undergone a thorough inspection in 2017, which had shown “no structural problem”.
The mayor of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn, Éric Oget, described it as an important crossing point for people going to work in the regional capital, Toulouse, on the other side of the river.
Many pedestrians used the bridge, he said, describing the collapse as a “real trauma” for the local population.
Oget said articulated lorries were not allowed on to the bridge but some had nonetheless been seen crossing over in the past. He said he had no information on whether the fallen truck had exceeded the allowed weight.
The issue of bridge safety was thrust into the spotlight in Europe after the collapse of a motorway bridge in the Italian city of Genoa in August 2018, in which 43 people died.
An audit of France’s bridges commissioned by the Senate after the Genoa disaster called for major investment to avoid a similar tragedy in France.
“Unfortunately what happened illustrates what we said in the report, which is that the state of our bridges poses a real danger,” the senator Hervé Maurey, who oversaw the audit, told AFP.
“If a bridge which is not listed as dangerous collapses, what is the situation of those bridges which were clearly identified as dangerous in the report?” he said.