Indian police have opened a case of culpable homicide against the company building a flyover that collapsed in Kolkata, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens more.
Police said they had detained five staff at the company. "Five people of the Hyderabad company have been detained for questioning," said the Kolkata deputy police commissioner, referring to the contractor IVRCL
Rescuers worked all night with cranes and jackhammers to clear concrete slabs and steel girders from the 100 metre length of the flyover that broke off suddenly and crashed down on pedestrians and vehicles on the road below.
90 people were rescued, many with serious trauma injuries, but chances of finding survivors in the wreckage had dwindled nearly a full day after yesterday's disaster in a busy commercial district.
"It is being ensured that there are no more dead bodies under the debris," a deputy inspector general of the National Disaster Response Force, told Reuters.
Television channels broadcast images of a street scene with two auto rickshaws and a crowd of people suddenly obliterated by a mass of falling concrete that narrowly missed cars crawling in a traffic jam.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose party is seeking re-election next month in the state of West Bengal, said those responsible would not be spared and blamed the previous state government that had awarded the flyover contract in 2007.
However, she herself faces questions about a construction project that has been plagued by delays and safety fears under her rule.
A newspaper reported last November that Ms Banerjee wanted the flyover - already five years overdue - to be completed by February.
Project engineers expressed concerns over whether this would be possible, media reported at the time.
Rescue operations were slow initially, with local residents forming crowds several deep as they tried to help trapped people.
But three cranes working overnight managed to clear some of the wreckage and free access to vehicles with people believed to be still trapped inside.
News images showed the leg and arm of one dead man protruding from under a massive steel girder.
Getting survivors to hospital was complicated by a lack of access for ambulances to the flyover, hemmed in by buildings on either side. Safety standards were lax, witnesses said.
"Every night, hundreds of labourers would build the flyover and they would cook and sleep near the site by day," said a man who pulled out six bodies, together with his friends.
"The government wanted to complete the flyover before the elections and the labourers were working on a tight deadline. Maybe the hasty construction led to the collapse," he said.
