Bridge collapse in Brazil leaves at least two dead, dozens missing Blogging Sole

A bridge connecting two northern Brazilian states has collapsed, killing at least two people and leaving a dozen others missing, police said Monday. A sulfuric acid spill complicates rescue operations.

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

Police operating on the border of the northern states of Maranhão and Tocantins said eight vehicles were missing: four trucks, two cars and two motorcycles. Brazil’s police and highways department said they had opened an investigation into the matter.

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

Magnum Coelho, colonel of the local fire brigade, told reporters that it was dangerous to send divers for rescue operations because the Tocantins River could be contaminated by sulfuric acid from one of the missing trucks that fell from the bridge .

The bridge collapse was one of many tragedies that occurred in Brazil this weekend. An accident involving a passenger bus and a truck on Saturday killed dozens of people on a highway in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil. On Sunday evening, authorities confirmed that the death toll stood at 41.

Local authorities said Sunday that the truck driver fled the scene and could face criminal liability due to the alleged weight of the cargo that may have caused the accident.

Firefighters in Minas Gerais state said several people were taken to hospitals near the town of Teofilo Otoni. The bus reportedly left from Sao Paulo and was carrying 45 passengers.

Also on Sunday, at least 10 people died after a small plane crashed in Gramado, a southern town popular with tourists. More than a dozen people were injured on the ground, Brazilian Civil Defense said.

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