Shocking: Footbridge in Florida collapses on cars, several feared dead

A walkway connecting Florida International University to a student housing area collapsed on traffic below, crushing cars on the motorway below. (All photos courtesy: Reuters; Text: AFP)

The walkway had went up recently but was not operational. At the time, authorities had claimed that the construction had been done in a way that traffic below was not disrupted.

It had been erected using an accelerated modular building method that enabled it to go up in the space of a day.

The university had only recently been celebrating the construction of the bridge across a busy and dangerous section of highway that students said had been the scene of accidents.

At last count, six people had died while several others were injured. At least eight cars were trapped when the 950-ton (tonne) bridge suddenly gave way.

Police detective Juan Carlos Llera said when the bridge came down, it "sounded like an explosion. A huge bang."

Bridge collapses in the United States are infrequent despite rising risks associated with aging infrastructure.

The deadliest such incident this century was in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2007, when an eight-lane bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.