Search continues for Nepal missing

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Rescuers searched for a third day as 26 people remained missing after the collapse of a bridge spanning the Bheri River in western Nepal, police said.

Sixteen bodies have been recovered -- the majority of them of women and children.

"Today we will search for the missing in the river with rafts," police superintendent Bahadur Jang Malla said on Thursday from Surkhet.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, army and police rescue teams searched as many at 20 miles (30 kilometers) downstream, looking for bodies.

The 120-yard-long bridge spanned the snow-fed river in the Surkhet district, about 280 miles (450 kilometers) southwest of Kathmandu.

The number of people on the bridge at the time of the collapse is estimated at between 700 and 1,000, said Nepal police officer Nibandha Budha.

The men, women and children -- taking part in the final day of a Hindu festival -- were crossing the bridge from one religious site to another when the structure gave way, police said.

Meanwhile, a government engineer overseeing Nepal's suspension bridge division said the bridge should have been able to hold more than the 1,000 people believed to have been on it when it collapsed on Tuesday.

"Although we have to examine the bridge before we come to a definite conclusion, there must have been a defect in the building of the bridge," said engineer Mani Ram Gelal. "A knot could have been loose."
Watch images of the collapsed bridge »

The bridge was built only six months ago, said Gelal, who is planning to go to the site on Thursday.
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By CNN journalist Manesh Shrestha

All About Kathmandu • Nepal