A suspension bridge packed with school children snapped in Peru, killing at least 9 and injuring dozens of others who plunged into a deep ravine, the mayor of the Andean mountain town of Coracora said.
"We've suffered a grave accident, a suspension bridge that goes to a high school has fallen, it has broken in two and we have a large number of students injured and dead," Mayor Walter Antayhua told RPP radio.
Most of the injured were aged 10 and 13, and two of the dead were teachers who were with their students when the pedestrian bridge collapsed, the health ministry said.
The bridge was 130 feet long and stretched above a canyon that is up to 320 feet deep, the mayor said. The town is about 370 miles southeast of Lima, the capital.
"We need a helicopter because there are children who are dying," Alfonso Paredes, a town resident, said from the poorly equipped hospital where patients were being treated.
Helicopters were sent to the town but could not land because of foul weather, and the government said it hoped to fly in trauma surgeons today.
At least 53 victims were taken to the hospital, 14 of them with serious injuries.
"The injuries are grave," said Fernando Valencia, a doctor at the hospital.
Suspension bridges woven from ropes were built during the Incan empire to move between steep Andean hillsides laced with canyons.
They are now often made of metal cables lashed to cement posts and are widely used in remote mountain towns in Peru.
Mr Antayhua, the mayor of Coracora, said repairs were scheduled for the bridge last week but it snapped before work could begin.
Reuters