World News Project

Part of bridge over the Skagit river gives way, with rescuers using boats to search for people in the water

The major highway bridge linking the Washington state city of Seattle with Canada and the rest of the Pacific north-west region collapsed late on Thursday, dumping several vehicles and the people inside into a river.

The four-lane Interstate 5 bridge collapsed about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, Trooper Mark Francis of the Washington state patrol said.

Francis said he did not know how many people were in the water or whether there were injuries or deaths. He did not know what caused the collapse, which came at the start of one of the country's busiest holiday weekends of the year.

Helicopter footage aired by KOMO-TV in Seattle showed one rescue boat leaving the scene with one person strapped into a stretcher. A damaged red car and a damaged pickup truck were visible in the water.

A Skagit Valley Herald reporter at the scene said a sheriff's office rescue boat had arrived and rescue crews were looking for people in the water.

A man told the local Skagit Valley Herald newspaper he felt a vibration and looked in his rear view mirror to see that the part of bridge he had just crossed was no longer behind him. "I thought something was wrong with my car at first," he said

The bridge is not considered structurally deficient but is listed as being "functionally obsolete" meaning that its design is outdated, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the statewide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.

Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges.

The group said more than a quarter of Washington state's 7,840 bridges were considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

Related posts:

1. Bridge collapses in Washington state, sending cars into river
2. Melbourne bridge truck driver flung 20m off bridge in crash – video
3. For first time, Israel's Water Authority to pump Kinneret water into Jordan River