Refiling to update with latest death toll

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday October 1, 2006

New York- At least five people were killed and two were critically injured when a highway overpass collapsed onto the road beneath it near Montreal, burying two cars in tonnes of rubble. Six vehicles and a motorcycle fell with the overpass on Saturday, leaving six people injured, two of whom were said to be in life- threatening condition.

Rescue workers spent nearly 15 hours trying to unearth the two buried cars from the rubble using cranes.

A witness said the bridge collapsed suddenly, "like a house of cards," and three or four cars in front of her plunged down with it.

The collapse occurred on a bridge connecting the island of Laval, with Montreal in the province of Quebec. A similar bridge collapse in Laval in 2000 killed one person.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency