No fewer than 16 people were feared dead and six others missing when two vehicles, a bus and a truck, plunged into a collapsed bridge at Yar’randa village in Charanchi Local Government Area of Katsina State, along Katsina-Kano road.

While 15 passengers died and six others are still missing in the bus said to be conveying 23 passengers, one person was feared dead in a truck with registration number XK 329 KMC, which plunged into the bridge yesterday morning.

The bus, which was reportedly conveying passengers, including small children, from Kankia to Katsina, plunged into the bridge few minutes after it collapsed due to the heavy downpour of Monday night.

It was gathered that 15 dead bodies were recovered from the unmarked ash-coloured bus, out of which four were recovered near Ajiwa dam, scores of metres away from the scene of the accident, after being washed away by the flowing water. The corpses have been deposited at the Charanchi General Hospital.

An eyewitness who claimed he arrived at the scene few minutes after the accident said he saw the bus floating on top of the water with scores of the passengers shouting for help “but we couldn’t do anything because the whole scenario was beyond our control.”

An FRSC official who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity at the scene said investigation by the corps revealed that the bus driver was moving at top speed and “that is why he could not stop when he approached the collapsed bridge.”

•Excerpted from a Leadership report. Photo: The collapsed bridge.