UPDATED 9:59 p.m. ET: Hours after a pedestrian bridge collapsed on the Florida International University campus, the Miami-Dade County Fire Department confirmed that four people were found dead in the rubble.
Fire Chief Dave Downey shared the tragic news during a briefing Thursday night, stating that the bodies were discovered at the scene by first-responders. According to the Associated Press, the chief also confirmed nine other victims were removed from the rubble "early on" and were transported to the hospital to receive medical treatment. Downey did not provide any information on the victims' conditions.
Read the original story below.
A pedestrian bridge at Florida International University covering a major highway running through downtown Miami collapsed on Thursday afternoon, trapping people in cars underneath. Police on the scene confirmed there are “multiple deaths,” but numbers have not been confirmed yet because no one has been able to get under the bridge to investigate, according to Miami Herald journalist Monique O. Madan. Florida Highway Patrol toldCNN that at least five or six cars were crushed underneath the bridge.
Reporters on the scene claim police were instructing journalists to move away from the bridge “in case the rest falls down.”
The bridge was under construction and not scheduled to open until early 2019. Construction workers told Madan that the collapse was due to "engineering failure." That said, CNN reports authorities have not yet determined the official cause of the bridge collapse.
The bridge was being constructed by Munilla Construction Management, who aimed to make "an iconic cable-stayed pedestrian bridge, connecting the city of Sweetwater with the northern entrance of Florida International University (FIU) over 8th Street." A video posted to YouTube in 2015 by the construction company showed what the completed bridge would have looked like. The project cost $9.3 million dollars and the bridge was just installed this weekend.
This story is developing and will be updated with more information.