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A woman’s body has been found after a bridge linking two northern states in Brazil collapsed, bringing the death toll so far to nine.
Brazil’s navy said on Friday that the body was found 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge. Another eight people remain unaccounted for.
Several cars and trucks plunged into the Tocantins River after a section of the bridge crumbled on Sunday.
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Police operating on the border of the northern states of Maranhao and Tocantins said four trucks, two cars and two motorcycles entered the river.
The 533-meter (1,748-foot) -long bridge between the cities of Estreito and Aguiarnopolis was built in the 1960s. It is about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north of the capital, Brasilia.
Brazilian authorities are investigating after a bridge collapsed Sunday, killing at least four people and sending trucks loaded with sulfuric acid and pesticides plunging into a river, raising concerns about water contamination.
More than a dozen people are missing after the 533-meter-long Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge – which connects the northeastern cities of Estreito and Aguiarnópolis – gave way. Four trucks, three cars, and three motorbikes fell into the Tocantins River, according to the state-run Agencia Brasil news agency.
Three women and one man died in the collapse, Agencia Brasil reported, citing the Maranhão Fire Department.
The trucks were carrying about 25,000 liters of pesticides and 76 tons of sulfuric acid, according to the National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation, raising concerns about environmental damage. Authorities warned residents not to drink or bathe in the river’s water.
CNN Brazil reported that the search for the missing was suspended because of the sulfuric acid in the river.
