http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22 ... om=mostpop

[quote]AT least six people were killed and scores injured when a major freeway bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed and sent up to 100 cars into the water below.

The bridge was packed with early rush-hour traffic when it fell at about 6.15pm (9.15am AEST). At least three sections collapsed, with a fourth feared to follow.

Rescue officials told CNN there could be between 50 and 100 cars in the river. At least three people were confirmed dead, CNN reported, but the toll was likely to rise.

A freight train was also passing under the bridge when it collapsed and was cut in two, WCCO television reported.

Aerial footage of the tragedy showed cars and other vehicles strewn across the collapsed bridge and one truck erupting in flames near a yellow school bus.

Cars hung over the edge of the collapsed bridge, trucks were cut in two and other vehicles lay precariously on collapsed sections of the structure, footage showed.

Local hospitals were put on alert, but it was unclear how many people were injured.

"I can't tell you how many people we've got, they're still coming in," said an official in the emergency department at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Divers were in the water under the bridge searching for victims and survivors.

'The worst thing I ever saw'

Witnesses said they heard a rumbling sound as the bridge collapsed into the river.

"First I heard this huge roar," Leone Carstens, a nearby resident, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"I was at my computer. Initially I thought, Wow was that an airplane?"

29-year-old Andy Scwich arrived at the scene a few minutes after the collapse.

"I saw them carrying up a body – I don't know if he was alive or dead," he said.

"It was the worst thing I ever saw."

Melissa Hughes, a new mother with a three-month-old child, was in a car on the bridge during the collapse.

“I was pretty much freaking out and sitting in the car with my foot as hard as it could go on the brake,â€

yeah, I heard about it on the radio earlier, it is a pretty big event.

Oh yeah, i heard about it from my penpal about it. It's pretty scary >___>

It was also on the news too.

It either will show up or has already shown up in the news around here, I'm sure.
Terrible.

Just one thing... I said this

in <a href="http://www.rpgmmag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4273">this</a> topic... and it is still true, eh? Understandable, given the paranoia the people have about terrorism up there, but still... rather amusing.

I heard like 8 people where dead.. Last I heard. I think there still looking for bodies.

I thought maybe people can swim out. But I guess if they hit there heads on the way down they would not be able to.

It's over a river. Rivers have strong currents, and undoubtedly with a bridge falling into it, I'm sure the current is a bit stronger now. Rivers are pretty wide... it's not that easy to swim across one.

As far as the terrorism thing goes, it's true, though it's mostly the media/government trying to make it a bigger deal than it really is by linking terrorism to everything. I guess it's a political ploy to try and get people to think we still have reason for staying over in Iraq.

I will repeat my position that people now at least ask the question to themselves if it is terrorist related without assuming that it is necessarily. The reporters are simply addressing what is a thought (only one of many) in people's minds and that's all. There is nothing wrong with them reporting that.

I didn't say there was anything wrong, it just amuses me how they seem to add that 'no evidence of terrorist involvement has been found' paragraph into each and every story.