The Latest: University head laments fall of campus bridge

Rosenberg spoke at a news conference Thursday evening with fire and law enforcement authorities and political leaders. He adds the university is committed to assisting in all efforts to overcome the tragic bridge collapse earlier Thursday.

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8:15 p.m.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Dave Downey says his crew is using high-tech listening devices, trained sniffing dogs and search cameras in the frantic race to find anyone still alive in the South Florida pedestrian bridge collapse.

Downey told a news conference Thursday evening the dangerous and difficult rescue operation continues. He says his highly trained crews have travelled to building collapses around the world and now are working as fast as they can on their home turf.

Says Downey: “We have to remove some of this piece by piece. It’s very unstable.” Aerial footage at the site showed a trained dog running atop fallen concrete and sniffing in the crevices for any victims.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida joined first responders and Gov. Rick Scott at the evening briefing. Rubio says he lamented the “tragic accident” and noted the pedestrian bridge was intended to be an innovative and “one-of-a-kind engineering design.”

He says the public and the families of the dead and injured deserve to know “what went wrong.”

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8 p.m.

The Miami-Dade County fire chief says four people have been found dead in the rubble of a collapsed pedestrian bridge in South Florida.

Fire Chief Dave Downey said at a news briefing Thursday evening that four deceased people had been found at the scene by first responders. He also says nine victims were removed “early on” and taken to hospitals. But he did not elaborate on their conditions.

He says “search and rescue mode” is continuing after nightfall.

Gov. Rick Scott also spoke to reporters, saying “everybody is working hard to make sure we rescue anyone who can be rescued.” The Florida governor adds that an investigation will get to the bottom of “why this happened and what happened.” He adds that if anyone had done anything wrong, “we will hold them accountable.”

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7:30 p.m.

President Donald Trump says on Twitter that he’s monitoring the “heartbreaking bridge collapse” at Florida International University in the Miami area.

Trump is calling the bridge collapse “so tragic” and praising the bravery of first responders who “rushed in to save lives. Thank you for your courage.” The president tweets that he is praying for “all who are affected.”

Officials say multiple people have been killed and eight people have been taken to the hospital. The section of bridge spanning a busy road in South Florida had just been installed Saturday.

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6 p.m.

A doctor says his hospital received 10 injured people — two of them critically — from the pedestrian bridge collapse at a Florida university.

Dr. Mark McKenney says at a news conference Thursday that two of the people Kendall Regional Medical Center received were in “extremely critical” condition. He says the other eight were stable, with injuries such as “bruises and abrasions to broken bones.”

Of the two more serious cases, McKenney said one arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest but was revived, and the other has a serious brain injury.

The new pedestrian bridge at Florida International University had been installed across a busy road Saturday.

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5:45 p.m.

An engineering professor says the decision to use what the builders called an “innovative installation” for a Florida pedestrian bridge that collapsed was risky.

Robert Bea of the University of California, Berkeley, says it’s too early to know exactly what happened in the collapse Thursday on the campus of at Florida International University in the Miami area.

But he questions the builders’ decision to try a “rapid span installation” where the 174-foot-long (55-meter-long) span was prefabricated, then swung into place before its central support tower was built. The section was put into place across a busy eight-lane road Saturday.

Bea said trying something new that crossed a highway was a gamble.

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5 p.m.

Officials at the scene of a bridge collapse at a Florida university say they are drilling holes into the debris to look for survivors.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Division Chief Paul Estopinan said at a Thursday news conference that rescuers are searching the rubble for people who may still be trapped underneath but they did not know how many that might be.

The pedestrian bridge was installed Saturday at Florida International University in the Miami area.

Estopinan said there had been reports of workers on the 174-foot (55-meter) span before it collapsed, and he confirmed that emergency workers did make some “surface rescues.” He said two victims were cut out of the wreckage.

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4:30 p.m.

Officials say multiple people have been killed and eight people have been taken to the hospital in the collapse of a bridge at a Florida university.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Division Chief Paul Estopinan said at a Thursday afternoon news conference that there were “multiple victims” but the number hadn’t been determined yet.

Estopinan says eight vehicles were trapped under the new pedestrian bridge at Florida International University in the Miami area.

Deputy Mayor Maurice Kemp says search dogs are working the scene.

The section of bridge spanning a busy road had just been installed Saturday.

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3:45 p.m.

Officials say several people have been killed in the collapse of a new pedestrian bridge at a Florida university campus.

Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alejandro Camacho tells CBS News that the collapse Thursday afternoon has caused “several fatalities.”

The 950-ton section of bridge was installed Saturday at Florida International University in the Miami area. It hadn’t yet opened to foot traffic.

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3:15 p.m.

University officials were urging students and others to stay away from the area where a pedestrian bridge collapsed while rescue efforts proceed.

Firetrucks, police and other emergency vehicles were at the scene Thursday afternoon on the campus of Florida International University in the Miami area. Fire officials said multiple people have been injured.

Gov. Rick Scott tweeted that he was on his way to FIU to be briefed by local law enforcement and university officials.

The university had announced with fanfare Saturday that the main section of the modularly constructed bridge had been swung into place. The university said the “accelerated bridge construction” method was supposed to reduce risks to workers and pedestrians and minimize traffic disruption.

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3 p.m.

Miami’s fire department says multiple people have been injured in the collapse of a pedestrian bridge at a Florida university.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department tweeted Thursday afternoon that “multiple patients” had been injured and officials were working to confirm how many. It also said it was securing the structure while searching for injured people.

The newly installed bridge collapsed on the campus of Florida International University in the Miami area.

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2:35 p.m.

Local live television reports show five or six vehicles trapped under a pedestrian bridge that has collapsed at a Florida university.

The newly installed bridge collapsed Thursday afternoon at Florida International University in the Miami area.

The TV broadcasts also showed several people being loaded onto ambulances immediately after the collapse.

The 950-ton section of bridge was installed Saturday. The bridge’s main 174-foot span was previously assembled by the side of the road while support towers were built at either end.

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2:25 p.m.

A newly installed pedestrian bridge has collapsed at Florida International University in the Miami area and it’s not immediately clear if anyone is hurt.

The 950-ton span fell Thursday afternoon at the university’s main campus in the Miami area. Video shows vehicles underneath the bridge were hit.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

The Latest: University head laments fall of campus bridge

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