- Title: WEST GERMANY: FIVE PEOPLE DIE IN BRIDGE COLLAPSE
- Date: 11th November 1971
- Summary: 1. GV & LV Collapsed bridge (4 shots) 0.18 2. MV PAN Workers among twisted wreckage 0.32 3. SV Frogmen & workers in water 0.38 4. SV & MV Rescue workers pulling body out of water (2 shots) 0.48 5. SV Body into boat 0.53 6. MV Boat away from wreckage 0.58 7. GV Onlookers on river bank 1.01 8. LV Body being taken out of
- Embargoed: 26th November 1971 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Koblenz, West Germany
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVACCAG67TX5DIH488WAA9JLFBSX
- Story Text: Five people are known to have died in a bridge collapse in Koblenz on Wednesday (10 November). Officials said that the death toll could have been much higher if the Rhine River had not been at its lowest level for 150 years.
Nine people were still missing today (11 November) and 10 have been reported injured following the disaster, which occurred when an unsuspected bridge collapsed on to a Rhine barge, spilling dozens of workers into the river.
The bridge was of the box-girder type, a construction that has caused controversy because of previous collapses. A report from Australia today has stated that the chief of the country's major building union said that its members would demand firm guarantees of safety before working on again on Melbourne's collapsed Westgate bridge -- another box-girder construction -- which claimed the lives of 36 men last year.
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