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CatastropheNorway

Drivers rescued after Norway bridge collapse

August 15, 2022

Emergency services had to deploy helicopters after the 150-meter-long wooden bridge collapsed with two vehicles on it. Authorities said the cause is not yet clear.

https://p.dw.com/p/4FXGa
The collapsed wooden bridge in Tretten, Norway
One of the drivers caught up in the bridge collapse had to be rescued with a helicopterImage: Geir Olsen/NTB Scanpix/AP/picture alliance

A wooden bridge in Norway collapsed on Monday morning, causing a car to plunge in the river below and leaving a truck in a near-vertical position for hours.

A police spokesperson said the car driver was able get out of the vehicle themselves, while emergency services had to rescue the truck driver with a helicopter. Both drivers are now doing well.

"It is completely catastrophic, completely unreal,'' local mayor Jon Halvor Midtmageli told the Dabgladet newspaper. "It is also a fairly new bridge."

The bridge was located on the river Gudbrandsdalslaagen in the village of Tretten, just north of  Lillehammer. It is one of several wooden bridges in southern Norway.

Cause of collapse still unknown

"It is completely destroyed, everything has fallen down," the mayor added. Authorities said the cause of the bridge collapse was not immediately clear.

The 150-meter-long (500-foot-long) bridge was made out of timber and opened to drivers in 2012.

The Norwegian Automobile Federation said the bridge had been inspected as recently as last year.

"We who travel on the roads must be able to trust that the bridges are safe to drive on,'' the organization's spokesperson Ingunn Handagard told local news agency NTB.

zc/rt (dpa, AP)