ASTELO DE PAIVA - At least 70 people were feared dead in northern Portugal after a double-decker bus and two cars plunged into a river when the bridge they were crossing collapsed yesterday.
In the first official word on the death toll from what would be one of Portugal's worst disasters in living memory, Public Works Minister Jorge Coelho said there was no doubt the number of victims was high.
"It is thought that 70 people have died," he said in Lisbon.
By last night only one body had been recovered after the bus, believed to be carrying 67 local people on a day-trip, plunged into the scenic Douro River near the town of Castelo de Paiva.
The minister, whose department runs road and rail transport, added he had submitted his "irreversible" resignation to Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, who immediately accepted it.
But officials said that there was little hope of finding many people alive. The bus and two cars fell some 50m into the fast-flowing river after the 116-year-old bridge suddenly gave way at around 10 am (New Zealand time).
It was not known how many victims were in the cars, but some residents told local media that they could have been carrying as many as nine people.
About 100 rescue workers were at the scene but the darkness, rough waters and the foggy conditions forced the search for survivors to be suspended until today (NZT), officials said. "It's not going to be easy to find the bodies," Rescue coordinator Joao Abrantes said.
Emergency services spent a number of hours searching the river in five motorboats. Crews also searched the banks with torches while they waited for generators to provide light.
Castelo de Paiva's Mayor told SIC television he did not believe anyone could have survived the accident, which occurred just outside the town, some 30km east of Portugal's second city Oporto.
"We don't believe there are any survivors," Paulo Teixeira told SIC news, adding that he believed 77 people had lost their lives in the accident.
According to local media reports, part of the bridge collapsed after one of its support pillars gave way under the pressure from river waters swollen by prolonged heavy rain.
When the pillar gave way, the roadway collapsed. An 73m section of the 182m-long metal bridge came loose.
At least five other people have died in northern and central Portugal, which is suffering violent storms, floods and landslides. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes and the floods have disrupted rail and road traffic.
An eyewitness told SIC television that he had been about to drive on to the bridge when he saw the bus and the two cars drop out of sight.
"They suddenly disappeared. I could not believe it," Eduardo Moreira told the television station by telephone from Castelo de Paiva.
He said that he left his car and ran to the point where the bridge had collapsed but the bus was already being carried away by the current of the fast-flowing river.
Teixeira said he had repeatedly warned that the bridge was in dangerous condition but that the necessary central Government funding to replace it had not been made available.
"I warned a long time ago about the state of the bridge and I fought as much as I could for its replacement. This is a time of mourning," Teixeira told Portuguese news agency Lusa.
The bridge is crossed by about 1600 vehicles per day.
Coelho said that he had already approved plans to build a new bridge but that he had to accept the "political" responsibility for what had happened.
"I assume the political responsibility [for the disaster]. I believe that it is no longer possible for me to remain," said Coelho, one of the Socialist Premier's closest colleagues in Government.
In a brief statement, Guterres said that Coelho had acted with great dignity and was "certainly without any personal responsibility for the tragic events that have left the country in mourning."
Local news reports said that the bus had been on an excursion to the northwestern Tras-os-Montes region to see flowering almond trees and was on its way back to Castelo de Paiva when disaster struck.
- AGENCIES
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