BRASÍLIA: The death toll after a bridge collapse in northern Brazil increased to 10 on Friday, authorities said.

The Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira bridge, which connects the states of Maranhao and Tocantins, collapsed on Sunday, sending vehicles and their occupants plunging into the water below.

The Brazilian Navy found an additional body on Thursday 6km from the site of the incident and a second victim on Friday in the Tocantins River.

“As such, there are 10 dead and seven missing victims so far,” the navy said in a statement, updating Thursday’s toll of eight dead and nine missing.

More than 70 rescuers continued the search nearly a week after the collapse, using a hyperbaric chamber to allow divers to search depths of more than 30m.

On Tuesday, Brazilian authorities had warned the Tocantins River could have been contaminated with sulfuric acid being transported by two trucks that tumbled into the water.
A third truck involved in the incident was carrying pesticides.

A spokesman for the fire department later told AFP that the tanks of all three trucks were “intact” after the collapse.

The danger from those chemicals, however, had slowed rescue and body-recovery operations for days while water analyses and inspections of the trucks’ chemical tank trailers were carried out.

The bridge, initially constructed in the 1960s, measured roughly 500m long.

The causes of the collapse were being investigated, but officials said initial indications were that the central beam of the bridge – built in the 1960s – gave way.