Eight US bridge deaths confirmed

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US officials have confirmed that eight people died, and five are missing, in the collapse of a bridge over the River Mississippi in the city of Minneapolis.

Three more bodies have been pulled from the rubble of the collapsed motorway bridge, leaving five people missing.

Two of the victims have been identified as a pregnant Somalian immigrant and her 22-month-old daughter.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters visited the site and promised $50m (Â£25m) for recovery and rebuilding.

The money is an advance on $250m that Congress has already promised but has not yet appropriated.

<a class="bodl" href="#anchor">See graphic of the bridge collapse </a>

She also promised $5m to help provide buses to compensate for the loss of the busy span across the Mississippi.

Structural problems

Divers recovered three bodies on Thursday and Friday from the wreckage of the bridge strewn in the fast-flowing waters of the Mississippi river.

Officials identified them as Peter Hausmann, 47, and Somalian nursing student Sadiya Sahal, 23, and her 22-month-old daughter Hanah Sahal.

Investigators said they may have found a design flaw in the steel plates that connect girders on the bridge.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), whose full investigation is set to take months, has not yet indicated any definitive cause for the collapse of the eight-lane I-35W highway bridge.

About 50 vehicles were thrown into the water when large sections of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis gave way without warning on 1 August.

Traffic was heavy at the time of the incident as only one lane was open in either direction on the eight-lane road owing to resurfacing work.

The extra weight of construction equipment is being examined as a possible factor in the bridge's collapse.

As early as 1990, officials had warned that the bridge had structural problems.

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