People gather during a rescue operation, after a bridge collapse led a train to fall into a canal in Wazirabad, near Lahore, Pakistan Thursday, July 2, 2015. At least four cars of a train being used to transport Pakistani soldiers fell into a canal because of a bridge collapse in the eastern Punjab province on Thursday, killing at least twelve soldiers, officials said.
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s military said Friday the death toll from an accident to a special train that plunged into a canal because of a bridge collapse has risen to 17. Divers were searching for more bodies.
The train derailed Thursday while crossing the Chanawan canal near the industrial city of Gujranwala in eastern Punjab province. Civil authorities and commandos and divers from the army retrieved 80 passengers, five of whom had been injured.
Pakistani army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, tweeted Friday that so far 17 bodies had been recovered and that the rescue work was still in progress.
The dead soldiers included the unit’s commander, his wife and a daughter, the state-run Pakistan television said.
TV networks showed footage of soldiers and civil authorities taking part in the rescue operation as helicopters flew overhead.
Shortly after the accident, soldiers broke the windows of the train with hammers and pulled out passengers trapped inside.
Pakistan Railways spokesman Abdul Rauf Tahir says another passenger train carrying hundreds of people had passed over the same bridge about 90 minutes before the train carrying soldiers fell into the canal.
“We frequently examine our bridges, but it is too early to say what caused the accident,” he told The Associated Press.
