(CNN) -- At least one person has died after an interstate bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed Wednesday evening, plunging cars and chunks of concrete into the Mississippi River below.


The accident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET).

Lt. Amelia Huffman of the Minneapolis Police Department told CNN affiliate KARE it was "not clear at this point what caused the collapse" of the Interstate 35W bridge near University Avenue.

"We have personnel there in the rescue effort," she said. "I have never seen anything remotely like this before."

Shortly after the collapse, a tractor trailer was burning on the bridge.

Rescue workers are using boats to help remove people from the water, bringing them up on the river bank.

Aerial footage showed the middle of the bridge caved in, lying in the Mississippi River, with cars both on top and submerged in the water.

Witnesses told CNN a school bus filled with children was on the bridge when it collapsed, but they also said the bus did not drop into the water and it appeared that the children had all been evacuated.

The main part of the collapsed span is not submerged, but the span clearly separated from the land-based sections of the highway on both the north and south ends of the bridge.
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Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.

"I heard this massive rumbling and shaking basically and looked out my window," Lacroix said. "It just fell right into the river."

He said there had been construction work on the bridge in recent weeks.

Nighttime construction took place on the bridge Tuesday night and was to take place again Wednesday night, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation,

The highway would have been restricted to a single lane in both directions from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. both nights.

how is it a brazillian beats us to the punch?

50-100 vehicles on bridge at the time. "lots" of injuries and i've heard as many as seven dead so far. rescue teams are currently having a hard time getting to some of the survivors still trapped among the debris.

i know its early, but that sounds like a really lowballed number of fatalities, hopefully it doesnt get much higher

Wow.

I hope the casualties won't be too high. Wonder what the cause was.

Gravity.

I used to drive that stretch of road every day to work. Just a scary time around here. Hope no one on this board has anyone they know or love who's been effected by this.

Obviously, the cause is not yet known, but my wife drove that stretch about a week ago (it's right by the Metrodome) and she said there was construction happening at that time.

vibration from a train passing underneath is a leading theory

yeah, they even stopped a game here to show it

*sniff sniff*

Is that a lawsuit I smell?

That was an absolutely hilarious post.

nice work.

That could be. The local media is reporting that a 2006 inspection of the bridge found fatigue cracks (I'm no engineer and they did not explain what that meant).

The local news is also reporting 1 dead, 6 critically injured, and 22 others injured right now. It is now being considered a recovery effort, not a rescue effort.

Given some of the pictures and the number of cars that appear to be in the water, one casualty seems like a miracle.

OK. Mayor just said 6 dead.

the kids are alright

we have 50 cars in the river

apparently, john belushi's kid is one of the leading eye witnesses, complete with "college" tshirt.

well, it's a 40 year old bridge, so i don't know what the, for lack of better word, warranty is on something like that. pretty much everyone who works down here crosses the mississippi somewhere. this is fucked up.