Foul play has been dismissed as a cause of the sudden failure of a suspension bridge in Hawke's Bay which sent four tourists tumbling into a river.
Initial engineering reports indicated the partial collapse of the Hopuruahine suspension bridge on the Great Lake walk at Lake Waikaremoana was caused by an "unexpected" failure of a heavy duty iron chain.
One of the cables on the bridge failed on the afternoon of September 3 and four French trampers on the bridge at the time fell into the river.
They escaped with minor cuts and scratches.
"Initial reports indicate that the release of the tension cable was caused by an unexpected failure in a link of heavy duty iron chain," Department of Conservation general operations deputy director Mike Slater said.