Casualties feared as highway bridge collapses in west India

NEW DELHI (AP) — Two or three vehicles carrying dozens of people plunged into a flooded river after a portion of an old bridge collapsed on the Mumbai-Goa highway in western India, police said Wednesday.

Police officer Sanjay Patil said rescuers have not seen the vehicles or any survivors hours after the bridge collapsed about midnight Tuesday.

O.P. Singh, chief of the state-run National Disaster Response Force, said 80 rescuers, including divers, rushed to the area but their efforts were being hampered by heavy rains.

Singh said the first reports said at least two buses fell into the Savitri river flooded by heavy monsoon rains.

Goa is a popular tourist resort.

Officials said traffic has been diverted to a new bridge in the area.

The old bridge that collapsed was built in the 1940s.