At least one person has died and 16 others are missing after a bridge collapsed between the northern Brazilian states of Maranhão and Tocantins, a police spokesman told AFP on Monday.
Four trucks, two cars, and two motorcycles were on the part of the bridge that gave way on Sunday afternoon, according to authorities.
Two of the trucks were carrying sulphuric acid, which "makes the search difficult" for the 16 missing people due to the possible "toxic" contamination of the Tocantins River under the bridge, said the spokesman for the Federal Highway Police (PRF, highway police).
Search efforts were interrupted on Monday afternoon, and firefighters were looking for a way to resume them.
Water supplies in the area were also suspended.
The PRF reported hours earlier that two people had died after the bridge collapsed, but so far only the body of a 25-year-old woman has been found.
A 36-year-old man was also rescued alive.
The Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge, more than half-a-kilometre long and built in the 1960s, is the main road connecting Maranhão and Tocantins.
"I am closely following the evolution of the collapse of the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge," said President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his X account.
The president pledged "all the help of the federal government" for "the rescue of the victims and the investigation of what happened" and sent his "condolences" to the relatives.
In addition to the collapse of the bridge, Brazil suffered two other serious accidents with fatalities last weekend.
41 people died early Saturday morning in a bus accident in the state of Minas Gerais (southeast), which allegedly occurred after the load of a truck broke off its body and hit the vehicle.
Ten people from the same family died on Sunday when the small plane they were travelling in crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (south).
– TIMES/AFP
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