The remains of the bridge on the Little Rangit on Sunday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Bijanbari, Oct. 23: Residents blamed themselves today for the loss of 32 lives, including that of three siblings under 12, in the collapse of a footbridge over the Little Rangit river in Darjeeling that was fit to hold 15-20 pedestrians but was packed with at least 150 last evening.

Maitree Chakraborty, the block divisional officer of Bijanbari, about 40km from Darjeeling town, said: “We had posted police personnel for crowd management. Things were fine during the day but in the evening, it seems that the crowd was unmanageable, leading to this accident.”

Two fairs — one a village fair and the other a cultural show organised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha — at two ends of the 150ft walkway that connected Bijanbari with Chungthung Tar were the reason for the heavy traffic.

Residents, who regretted that they had not been careful and recalled how a vigilant villager had ensured no one died when an earlier bamboo bridge at the spot was swept away by the river in 1968, said some youths even rode bikes on the bridge meant only for pedestrians.

A hushed crowd gathered at the banks of the Little Rangit today, where only mangled steel cables and wooden planks remain.

Bijanbari town shut down as residents went from house to house with khadas (traditional Tibetan scarf) and flowers to offer condolences to families of the dead. Many had lost more than one member.

Manoj Ghimire, 33, a driver from Chayanpuri, lost his nine-year-old daughter Niruta and two-year-old twins Nisha and Nishant.

Most of the deaths resulted from internal haemorrhage as people hit rocks when they fell into the river. The Chungthung Tar end, where the cable came off the hook with which it had been pinned to the ground, cuts down sharply into the river that has large jutting rocks.

Sanjay Pradhan, a Bijanbari resident, said: “I think if the bridge had collapsed from the Bijanbari end, most of the people would have fallen on the slopes and not plunged straight into the river.”

The large crowd ensured that rescue work started immediately.

“We carried on with the rescue work till 2.30am today and resumed at 9am. It was a joint operation by the army, police, fire brigade, civil defence, forest personnel and the locals…. The search and rescue operation was called off at noon,” said Tamal Das, the subdivisional officer of Darjeeling.

The rescue team went downstream for more than a kilometre to search for bodies.

Morcha president Bimal Gurung, along with all the members of the party’s central committee, visited the homes of the victims.

In Darjeeling town, the Morcha put up posters asking people not to burst crackers on Diwali as a mark of respect for the dead.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited Siliguri and Darjeeling and the state government has announced a Rs 2 lakh compensation for families of the dead and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

North Bengal development affairs minister Gautam Deb, forest minister Hiten Barman, and minister of state for consumer affairs Sunil Tirkey visited the accident spot.

Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh has decided to sanction Rs 50 lakh to construct a better bridge but the residents are only too aware they need to be more careful themselves.