When a bridge collapsed in Brazil, at least 2 people died, dozens went missing

A bridge connecting two northern Brazilian states has collapsed, killing at least two people and leaving about a dozen others missing, police said Monday. The rescue operation is complicated by the spill of sulfuric acid.

Footage obtained by local residents showed cars and trucks crossing the Juscelina Kubicek de Oliveira Bridge when large sections of the bridge collapsed into the river on Sunday.

Police operating on the border of the northern states of Maranhão and Tocantins said eight vehicles were missing: four trucks, two cars and two motorcycles. Brazil's police and road department said they had opened an investigation into the case.

The 533-meter (1,748 ft) long bridge between the cities of Estreita and Agios Nikolaos was built in the 1960s and is located 1,300 kilometers (800 mi) north of the capital city of Brasilia.

Magnum Coelho, colonel of the local fire department, told reporters that sending divers for rescue operations was dangerous because the Tocantins River could be contaminated with sulfuric acid from one of the missing trucks that fell off the bridge.

The bridge collapse was one of several tragedies in Brazil last weekend. An accident involving a passenger bus and a truck killed dozens of people on a highway in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais on Saturday. On Sunday night, authorities confirmed that the death toll had risen to 41.

Local authorities said Sunday that the driver of the truck fled and could face criminal charges for allegedly being overweight, which may have caused the crash.

The Minas Gerais state fire service said several people were taken to hospitals near the town of Teofilo Atoni. The bus reportedly departed from Sao Paulo and was carrying 45 passengers.

Also on Sunday, at least 10 people were killed when a small plane crashed in Hramada, a southern city popular with tourists. More than a dozen people were injured on the ground, the Civil Defense Agency of Brazil reported.

The plane was piloted by Luis Claudio Galeazzi, a Brazilian businessman who was traveling with his family to the state of Sao Paulo. Brazil's civil defense agency said the plane hit the chimney of a house and then the second floor of the building before crashing into a mobile phone shop.