Nine persons of a family met a watery grave when a pick-up van fell off a dilapidated pontoon bridge across the Ganga near Danapur in Patna district on Friday.

The deceased included four women and three children. Three persons, including the driver of the vehicle swam to safety.

The incident occurred on Friday morning, but the bodies could be recovered only after several hours when deep divers started looking for them. A crane pulled the vehicle out of the river.

The rescue operations are still going on as various accounts of the local people said that 18 to 25 people were travelling on the ill-fated pick-up van.

One Sujit Kumar Singh, who was in the vehicle but survived, said that the deceased were the family members of one Madan Singh.

They were returning after attending some marriage-related ceremony from their house in Nasriganj in Danapur sub-division to another house in Akilpur diara (riverine area) on the other side of the Ganga. The marriage was scheduled on April 26.

“Our vehicle suddenly swerved, dashed against the railing of the pontoon bridge and fell into the river. I was sitting on top of the vehicle and managed to swim back to safety. The water was deep and the vehicle as well as most of the other passengers were not even visible,” Sujit said.

Within no time thousands of locals rushed to the spot of the accident. They tried to launch a rescue operation, but water was quite deep. Finally, the district administration officials reached and did the needful.

“The mishap happened due to the makeshift bridge caving in. We have taken out nine bodies and are looking for six others who could have been travelling in the vehicle,” Danapur station house officer (SHO) A.K. Sah told reporters.

Meanwhile, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar expressed grief over the deaths and directed his officials to provide Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased.