Two people were killed and several injured when a section of a bridge under construction collapsed in southern Iraq, local authorities said Sunday.
The collapse took place late Saturday, with the rescue operation lasting more than 13 hours.
An AFP photographer reported that rescue workers labored until morning to free those trapped in their vehicles under the twisted wreckage of the bridge on the main Karbala-Baghdad road.
Karbala's civil defense agency said they had "rescued seven people and recovered two bodies" from under the collapsed structure.
A health official in Karbala told AFP late Saturday that at least six people were injured, some of them from Syria and Afghanistan.
All the injured were transported to the nearest hospital in Karbala, where Shiite pilgrims from other countries often travel to visit holy shrines.
The health official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the "pillars of the bridge collapsed while several vehicles were passing underneath it.”
