HELSINKI (AP) – Two dozen people, many of them schoolchildren, were injured when a temporary pedestrian bridge collapsed in the southern Finnish city of Espoo yesterday, police and media said.
Police said the bridge crossing a construction site in Espoo’s Tapiola region collapsed mid-morning. No one was killed, but 24 people were injured, 10 of them seriously.
Espoo is a neighbouring city of the capital, Helsinki.
“Several people fell a few metres when the bridge collapsed. The situation is being investigated,” police said in a statement.
Helsinki University Hospital said it received 15 of those injured.
“The injuries are mostly extremity fractures,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that the injured belonged to a school group.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö tweeted, “Shocking news about an accident in Tapiola.
Providing support and help now important.”
Police are conducting a technical investigation and the possible causes for the accident are being probed.
