The accident occurred when workers were engaged in repair work on the bridge, which had developed cracks following the 2025 floods, and was buried under debris after a part of the structure suddenly collapsed on Friday. While one worker, Tarsem Lal, was rescued and admitted to hospital with injuries, three bodies were recovered during the 12-hour operation. The deceased were identified as Panchu Sethi (50) from Ganjam district of Odisha and Harish Kumar (28) and Raj Kumar (30) from Chhattisgarh.“Mohammad Jafar, a fire and emergency department official, was also injured after being hit by a rock during the rescue operation and has been admitted to the hospital,” an official said.Soon after the bridge collapse, teams from police, army, SDRF, NDRF and civil administration reached the spot and launched a coordinated rescue operation. Heavy machinery including JCBs were pressed into service to expedite search and rescue efforts.Deputy CM Surinder Kumar Choudhary visited the spot at midnight and ordered assistant executive engineer Sahil Verma and junior engineer Sajjad Mir to be suspended pending investigation under Rule 331 of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules-1956.The government has also constituted a three-member inquiry committee, which has been tasked to investigate all aspects of the incident including any dereliction of duty by departmental officials and specifically fix the responsibility of the executing agency. The committee will also recommend action against those responsible and suggest measures to prevent such incidents in future. It has been directed to submit its report within 15 days.