Six people, including 3 women, were killed and 36 were injured when a portion of a busy Footover Bridge near iconic CST railway station here collapsed on Thursday during the peak rush hour.
A big slab of the FOB came crashing at around 7.20 pm due to which several pedestrians were injured. Mumbai Police, Fire Brigade and other rescue agencies reached the spot and immediately evacuated those buried under the rubble and shifted them to hospitals. The deceased were identified as Apoorva Prabhu (35), Ranjana Tambe (40), Bhakti Shinde (40), Zahid Shiraj Khan (32) and T Singh (35), said police spokesperson Manjunath Shinge.
Among the dead were three nurses from GT Hospital, who were heading for their night shifts. Two of them — Ranjana Tambe and Apoorva Prabhu — had worked at the hospital for over 12 years. The Dombivli residents were heading for their night shift, which was to start at 8 pm. The third nurse was Dombivli resident Bhakti Shinde, 40. Her relatives said that she was on the bridge along with her colleague, Vijay Bhagwat, 35. While Bhagwat suffered minor injuries, Shinde succumbed to head injuries.
Apoorva Prabhu’s husband, Abhay, who rushed to the hospital after coming to know about the accident on TV, said he had spoken to his wife after she boarded the train along with Tambe and another staffer, Bhakti Shinde. “She had called me after she boarded. Then, I saw the news on TV about the collapse. Her name was being flashed, I tried calling her but could not get through,” he told the Indian Express.
(Inputs from Agencies)
