Four people are believed to have been killed when a section of the Second Penang Bridge, which is under construction at Batu Maung here, collapsed onto their vehicle at about 7pm.
The police had received the call at about 7.05pm on the collapse and rushed to the scene at around 7.15pm.
According to a police spokesperson, a section of the Batu Maung Interchange that connects the bridge to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu had collapsed onto a passing car along the road underneath the structure.
Initial investigations revealed that all four people in the vehicle are believed to have been killed immediately.
The collapsed section is a part of the flyover connecting the expressway to the bridge in between two concrete beams.
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The police had cordonned off the area and that section of the road is now closed to traffic.
The Fire and Rescue Department personnel had unearthed the buried vehicle and now works are underway to extract the victims from the crushed vehicle.
Earlier, Jambatan Kedua Sdn Bhd (JKSB) public relations and communications department deputy manager Azizi Azizan confirmed that a section of Package 3A of the Second Penang Bridge project had collapsed.
"That is the section connecting the bridge to the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu Expressway," he told The Malaysian Insider in a telephone interview.
The section is still under construction and the contractor was supposed to complete it and hand over the completed section by next month, he added.
"Construction works were ongoing when it happened but we have ordered immediate stop work on all construction works following the incident," he said.
It is still too early to determine the cause of the collapse but JKSB will conduct a full investigation into the incident.
JKSB will also issue a full statement on the incident tomorrow.
