Arrests after India bridge collapse kills more than 130

Nine people were arrested in connection with the collapse of a pedestrian bridge in western India that killed at least 137 people, police said.

The bridge, which had reopened days earlier after renovation, collapsed, sending hundreds tumbling into the river or clinging to the wreckage while screaming for help in the dark.

The nine -- all associated with a company that maintained the bridge in Morbi -- were being investigated for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, senior police officer Ashok Kumar Yadav said in a statement.

Crowds at the site had been celebrating the last day of the Diwali holiday.

CCTV footage showed the nearly 150-year-old structure swaying -- with a few people apparently deliberately rocking it -- before it suddenly gave way.

Local police chief P. Dekavadiya said that the death toll from the catastrophe in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat had risen to 137.

They included around 50 children, the youngest being a two-year-old boy.

One local MP, Kalyanji Kundariya, told the media he had lost 12 family members in the accident, including five children.

Authorities launched a rescue operation immediately following the collapse, with boats and divers searching the river all night and throughout.

The bridge, 233 metres long and just 1.5 metres wide, was inaugurated in 1880 by British colonial authorities and made with materials shipped from England, reports said.