Darbhanga, May 29: Two teams of State Disaster Response Force toiling since Thursday morning could not trace the construction workers who went missing in Kareh, a tributary of Bagmati at Akharaghat on Wednesday.

Over 12 construction workers fell in the river in Hayaghat area on Wednesday when a span of an underconstruction bridge fell on them.

They were swept away by the current, while many of them managed to swim to safety.

Four families claimed to have lost their members in the incident.

The missing workers were identified as Fakira Sahani (28), Uchit Sahani (31) and Raghubir Sahani (35), all residents of Akharaghat area, and Dipak Kumar (32), a resident of Bettiah. In spite of efforts by the State Disaster Response Force, the bodies could not be fished out till Thursday evening.

Seething villagers torched some construction machines on Thursday, demanding that the missing bodies be traced out.

The situation in the area was very tense, while the SDRF teams comprising 25 members were on work but they could not achieve much in the rescue operations.

Officials of the district and the police administrations were camping at the site to avert any untoward incident.

Hayaghat block circle officer Dharmendra Prasad Gupta said: “The bodies of four or five construction workers who might have drowned to death have not been recovered yet. We are making our best efforts to fish out the missing bodies. It is difficult to ascertain the exact of number of workers as many are said to have managed to swim out of the river and are being treated in private hospitals. Even construction officials were not available to identify the workers who went missing. We are trying to contact Jai Mata Di Construction Company to ascertain the exact number of workers who went missing.”

Akharaghat resident Shivnath Chaudhary said: “Two SDRF teams are trying to retrieve the bodies. Relatives of four missing persons have arrived at the construction site. The villagers are fed up with the slow rescue operations of the district administration. More than 24 hours have passed but no body has been recovered yet. The officials of the construction company have not yet arrived to divulge the number of missing workers.”