© Agence France-PresseMap showing location of the suspension bridge which collapsed in Nepal on Saturday
Emergency personnel had managed to pull just four people alive from the fast-flowing Trishuli River and recovered the bodies of an Indian and a Nepali, said Gorkha district police officer Krishna Acharya.
"Two people have died when the suspension bridge over Trishuli river connecting Gorkha and Chitwan districts to the Prithvi Highway collapsed this afternoon (Saturday)," he said.
"There were 47 people on the bridge when it crashed and plunged into the river," he told AFP.
"We have recovered dead bodies of one Indian tourist and a Nepali from the river and rescued four persons who are now undergoing treatment at local hospital."
Trisuli is Nepal's most popular rafting river with spectacular gorges and rapids and favoured for its easy accessibility from Kathmandu and Pokhara.
Acharya said a busload of Indian tourists en route to Pokhara had stopped on the bridge for sightseeing when a supporting pole snapped due to the excessive load on the ageing iron structure.
"Police personnel are searching for those missing in the river. We don?t have exact numbers of the missing," he said.
Nepal has hundreds of bridges in the rugged countryside that range from rope or wooden planks to steel and concrete.
The impoverished landlocked Himalayan nation is criss-crossed by dozens of rivers across one of the steepest topographies in the world.
"“However, during our study, we found that the bridges were all in a dilapidated state. If timely renovation does not take place, these bridges may collapse any time.”
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