Death toll rises from Minneapolis bridge collapse

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug 3 (Reuters) The death toll from a collapsed US highway bridge rose to at least five and was expected to climb more as divers felt their way through murky Mississippi waters to victims, authorities said today.

Rescuers spent an entire day extracting the fifth fatality from under mounds of debris, Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack said. He said another victim had died in a hospital, but the local coroner did not confirm either death.

''It took 20 people all day to get the person out. There was tons of debris,'' Clack said.

As investigators looked for the cause of the collapse, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said there had been ''warning signs'' of problems with the 40-year-old bridge and a local newspaper reported that plans to shore it up had been postponed pending other repairs.

Meanwhile, divers resumed their search of submerged cars that tumbled 65 feet (20 meters) into the Mississippi River when the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed with a roar during Wednesday's evening rush hour.

''Conditions on the river ... are even more treacherous than yesterday. We will be slow and methodical during our search operations today,'' Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said.

Earlier, Stanek said there were eight people unaccounted for, but the number of missing may be higher.

Divers battled swift currents, and had to feel their way in the muddy waters around twisted steel and chunks of concrete.

''You got gas in there, oil. Besides, the Mississippi River is not the cleanest place. You didn't have any visibility, you just felt,'' Minneapolis Fire Department diver Raoul Raymose said on CBS' ''Early Show.'' Fourteen divers were being used to check on ''targets'' upstream from the Interstate 35W bridge, several of which are believed to be submerged vehicles, Stanek said. He would not say whether the cars were known to contain victims.

Investigators said determining a cause for the collapse would take time.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that Minnesota's Department of Transportation debated how to shore up the steel truss span, which had been rated ''structurally deficient'' by federal inspectors. The bridge was one of tens of thousands of US bridges given the designation.

The agency had decided to bolt plates into areas where inspectors found flaws in the steel girders, but that work had been postponed while the bridge was being resurfaced and other repairs were made over the summer, the newspaper reported.

''This bridge has been under inspections since 1990,'' Pawlenty told CNN. ''There were warning signs that there were problems with this bridge, concerns with this bridge. But no one came forward and said a collapse is imminent or it should be closed.

''They kept talking about future fixes. And so now, going back with hindsight, we're going to be able to say 'Well, should they have taken a different course or is what they did reasonable?''' Tales of bravery emerged from the disaster, including that of 20-year-old Jeremy Hernandez, a counselor on a school bus with 50 children returning from an outing to a water park.

After the bus landed on its wheels, a truck alongside shooting out flames, Hernandez leaped up from his seat, kicked open the emergency rear exit, and helped the children to safety.

REUTERS RS KKP2039