At least six labourers were killed and three injured when an under-construction bridge in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district collapsed during heavy rain and storm in the small hours of Friday.

Several labourers were sleeping on a portion of the bridge being built over the Betwa river when it gave way and fell on the workers taking rest below around 3am.

Rescuers said many more labourers might be trapped under the debris of the viaduct, which was supposed to connect Mawai Jaar and Kurara villages in the district.

Arvind Kumar Verma, additional superintendent of police of Hamirpur, said: “We got to know about the bridge collapse at 2am. There may be more people under the slabs, pier and shuttering that also crumbled. We are conducting the rescue operation with the help of the State Disaster Response Force. Six bodies have been recovered from there. We have also rescued three labourers and admitted them to the district hospital.”

The deceased have been identified as Lokendra, 22, Kuldeep Nishad, 19, Sawant Yadav, 28, Sabhajeet, 30, Pushpendra Chauhan, 34, and Rajesh Pal, 42, the police said.

The government has suspended Ganjendra Kumar Singh, assistant engineer of the PWD, for alleged dereliction of duty.

Hamirpur district magistrate Abhishek Goyal and superintendent of police Mrigank Shekhar Pathak reached the spot and inspected the rescue operations.

Goyal told reporters that the construction work was being carried out by a private company and the project had been underway for two years.

He said the India Meteorological Department and the district administration had issued warnings about strong winds, storm and rainfall on Thursday evening. Announcements were made in villages to alert residents and workers about the adverse weather conditions, he added.

Goyal claimed all safety arrangements for labourers had been made at the site, adding that an inquiry would be conducted to ascertain the reasons behind the incident.

A local said BJP Rajya Sabha member Baburam Nishad had approved funds for the bridge but never visited the site to monitor the quality of work. “We had informed him and some PWD officers that substandard materials were being used in the construction, but they didn’t listen to us,” the resident said.

“The labourers were working till Thursday midnight and took shelter under the bridge when the storm and rain started. Usually, they work for 14-16 hours a day,” said an eyewitness and a resident of Morakandar Parsani village, adjacent to Mawai Jaar.