Ashwin Mehra, who was undergoing treatment after sustaining leg and back injuries when he plunged from the 150-year-old bridge, said he and six others had reached the shore by holding onto the bridge’s metal railings and netting.

“Some 15-20 mischievous young kids were shaking the ropes of the bridge. Three times a noise came from the bridge before it collapsed,” he told Reuters TV partner ANI.

01:43

At least 134 dead after bridge collapse in India’s Gujarat state, plunging hundreds into river

At least 134 dead after bridge collapse in India’s Gujarat state, plunging hundreds into river

Seven members of a family perished, after the children had asked to be taken to the suspension bridge, as they were walking home from a temple.

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

CCTV footage showed the structure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat swaying – with a few people apparently deliberately rocking it – before it suddenly gave way.

The walkway and one fence crashed into the river, leaving the other side dangling in mid-air and hundreds of people in the water.

“I saw the bridge collapse before my eyes,” said one witness who worked all night on rescue efforts, without giving his name. “It was traumatic when a woman showed me a photo of her daughter and asked if I had rescued her. I could not tell her that her daughter had died.”

Supran, another witness, said the bridge was “jam-packed”.

“The cables snapped and the bridge came down in a split second. People fell on each other and into the river,” he told local media.

News reports showed footage of people clinging onto the twisted remains of the bridge or trying to swim to safety in the dark.

Many Indians cannot swim and another Morbi resident, Ranjanbhai Patel, said he helped pull out those who had been able to reach the banks.

“As most of the people had fallen into the river, we were not able to save them,” he said.

Local police chief P. Dekavadiya said that by Monday afternoon that the death toll had risen to 137. They included around 50 children, the youngest being a two-year-old boy.

Some 400 people had gathered on the narrow bridge over the Machchhu River on Sunday after buying tickets to visit the landmark, which was built in 1877.

The Oreva group, makers of clocks and electrical products, had been awarded a contract this year to maintain and manage the bridge for 15 years, according to local officials.

Municipal official Sandeepsinh Zala said Oreva had not informed local authorities about reopening the 233-metre (255 yard) bridge and had not been issued a fitness certificate to do so.

An Oreva spokesperson did not answer calls and text messages from Reuters. The Indian Express newspaper quoted an Oreva spokesperson as saying: “ … the bridge collapsed as too many people in the midsection of the bridge were trying to sway it from one way to the other.”

Two Jadeja siblings, relatives of the family of seven that died, first rushed to the site of the disaster but they could not find any of their family, said their cousin.

The brothers then went to Morbi’s government-run civil hospital, about a from the riverside, where they found their mother’s body around 10pm.

The bodies of their wives and the children, aged between five and 10 years, were brought to the hospital later in the night, where they were identified by the bereaved brothers.

All seven were cremated early on Monday.

Narendrasinh Jadeja, a friend of Pratapsinh Jadeja, described the Jadejas as a contented and close-knit family that all lived together in Morbi. “I cannot express how angry and helpless I am feeling,” said Narendrasinh, a lawyer.

The government of Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where Morbi is located, has formed a five-member team to investigate the disaster.

The bridge over the Machchhu river, a popular tourist spot, had only reopened several days earlier, after months of repairs.

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

The bridge, 233 metres (764 feet) long and 1.5 metres wide, was inaugurated in 1880 by British colonial authorities and made with materials shipped from England, reports said.

The Gujarat tourist department describes the “grand suspension bridge” about 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the state’s main city, Ahmedabad, as an “artistic and technological marvel”.

Accidents from old and poorly maintained infrastructure, including bridges, are common in India.

In 2016, the collapse of a flyover onto a busy street in Kolkata killed at least 26 people.

Five years earlier, at least 32 people perished when a packed bridge collapsed in the hill resort of Darjeeling.

Additional reporting by Kyodo