Second body found in Bogor bridge collapse

Rescuers say they have found the body of a second person swept away by the Cihideung River after a bamboo bridge collapsed in Ciampea in Bogor, West Java, on Sunday.

“The body was found 15 kilometers away from the collapsed bridge,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.

Rescuers have recovered the bodies of two victims, Umamah, 45, and Tia binti Jamal, 10, and continue to search for six children, aged between 5 and 10, who have been missing since the collapse.

BNPB Bogor office chief Nurhayati said that rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police, the Indonesian Red Cross and Bogor regency would continue the search for survivors at least three more days.

Ciampea Regent Djuanda Dimansyah said that the bridge was overloaded and suddenly collapsed as a group of women and children simultaneously crossed over it.

The group was returning from an event commemorating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday on the campus of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB).

“It collapsed when 12 people were on the bridge at the same time,” Djuanda said.

The makeshift bridge, which was 15 meters long and little more than a meter wide, was built by local residents as a shortcut from Pabuaran Kaum village to the university.

“IPB prohibited us from building the bridge, but because we needed it they finally allowed it,” Miftahudin, a resident who helped in the search, said as quoted by tempo.co.

Makmur Rozak, an official from the BNPB’s Bogor office, said that the government would give the families of each victim Rp 5 million (US$554).