Six hurt in Montreal-area overpass collapse

MONTREAL, Oct 1 (Reuters) An expressway overpass collapsed in a Montreal suburb, injuring six people, three of them critically, and possibly trapping others beneath a tangle of concrete debris, emergency officials said.

Nearly 10 hours after the collapse, rescuers were still painstakingly trying to reach any vehicles caught underneath the rubble and said it could be hours before they manage to get to anyone who may be trapped.

''We really don't know how many people could be underneath that structure at this point,'' said Jason Gauthier yesterday, spokesman for Quebec's provincial police force, Surete du Quebec.

''We will probably find at least one, maybe a couple of vehicles, so we're still working frantically through it.

''But we have to keep in mind that some of that structure hasn't fallen down. It might.'' Several motorists told Canada's LCN television network they had called police up to one hour before the collapse to report seeing fissures appearing in the overpass roadbed and chunks of concrete falling to the road below.

Police could not confirm any deaths but were fearful no one could have survived underneath the tons of concrete that came crashing down shortly before 1 pm (2230 IST).

''It's about 3 feet deep, 50 feet in length and 30 feet wide, so therefore anything in its path would have been crushed,'' Gauthier said. ''We're still hoping that somehow, somebody might have survived this.'' Live video images taken by helicopter and broadcast on LCN showed a large section of the overpass had collapsed, with three vehicles jammed among concrete beams and slabs of asphalt roadbed. A motorcycle also lay atop the massive fallen slab.

The collapse occurred on Boulevard de la Concorde, a busy road that crosses over Autoroute 19 in Laval, just north of Montreal.

Live television images showed a three-lane section of the overpass collapsed over all six lanes of the road underneath.

Emergency officials brought two large cranes to the site to lift the fallen road.

In November 2000, a man was killed and two people injured after a concrete section of an overpass under construction in Laval collapsed.

REUTERS PB HS0937