A bridge collapse in Brazil leaves at least two dead and dozens missing

Brazilian police announced on Monday that a bridge linking two northern states in Brazil collapsed, killing at least two people and leaving 12 others missing. A sulfuric acid leak complicates the rescue operation.

Footage obtained by local residents showed cars and trucks crossing the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge when large parts of it collapsed into the river on Sunday.

Police working on the border of the northern states of Maranhão and Tocantins said eight vehicles were missing: four trucks, two cars and two motorcycles. The police and the Brazilian Road Administration said they had begun investigations into the case.

The 533-meter (1,748-foot) bridge between the cities of Estreto and Aguiarnopolis was built in the 1960s and is located 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north of the capital, Brasilia.

Magnum Coelho, a colonel at the local fire marshal’s office, told reporters that sending divers for rescue operations was dangerous because the Tocantins River may be polluted with sulfuric acid from one of the missing trucks that fell from the bridge.

The bridge collapse was among many tragedies that Brazil witnessed over the weekend. A collision between a passenger bus and a truck on Saturday killed dozens on a highway in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. On Sunday evening, the authorities confirmed that the number of deaths had risen to 41.

Local authorities said on Sunday that the truck driver fled and may face criminal liability due to alleged overloading that may have caused the accident.

The Minas Gerais State Fire Department said that several people were taken to hospitals near the city of Teofilo Otoni. The bus reportedly departed from São Paulo and was carrying 45 passengers.

Also on Sunday, at least 10 people died after a small plane crashed in the southern city of Gramado, popular with tourists. The Brazilian Civil Defense Agency said that more than a dozen people were injured on the ground.

The plane was piloted by Luiz Claudio Galeazzi, a Brazilian businessman who was traveling with his family to the state of Sao Paulo. The Brazilian Civil Defense Agency said that the plane hit the chimney of a house and then the second floor of the building before crashing into a mobile phone store.