One Girl Dead and 19 School Children Rescued in Malaysia Bridge Collapse

Search and rescue operations are under way in Malaysia for primary school children feared drowned after a suspension bridge collapsed during a camping trip.

Photo: One Girl Dead and 19 School Children Rescued in Malaysia Bridge Collapse

Ismail Omar, Malaysia’s deputy inspector-general of police, told Bloomberg News four bodies were recovered. He said he is awaiting confirmation of the toll from Perak state police.

One girl is confirmed dead and two others are missing after the incident late yesterday near Kuala Dipang, Bernama, the national news agency, reported, adding that the students were under 13 years of age. Police earlier said as many as 21 students may be missing, it said.

"We don’t really know the actual number of pupils missing," Perak Chief Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said in a mobile phone interview today. "We are still trying to verify," Bloomberg reports.

Nineteen other students who plunged into the river below were rescued after the accident Monday evening in northern Perak state, where they had been among 298 children on a camping trip.

"From reports from the teachers on the scene we believe that there were 22 children on the bridge when it collapsed," said Kampar police chief Aziz Salleh.

"Nineteen of these students have been rescued and from the lists we have been given, three are missing," he told AFP.

The bridge, about 50 yards long, was recently built to replace an older one that had collapsed, Bernama reported.