HELSINKI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Up to 24 people, mainly school pupils, were injured when a pedestrian bridge near Helsinki collapsed on Thursday morning, said regional authorities.
The Helsinki region health authority HUS confirmed the number of the injured, saying they had been taken to hospitals. Some have serious injuries, but no one was in critical condition.
The bridge near a building site was a temporary construction but is open for general use.
Eero Hirvensalo, head of the acute trauma response services at HUS, told a press conference at noon that 45 people had been on the bridge when it collapsed, and most patients were around 15 years old.
Including one adult, the victims were taken by ambulances to four hospitals in the Helsinki region. Minor injuries have been treated in walk-ins and private clinics.
Hirvensalo said the evacuation and admittance into the hospitals had been a "first-class operation."
The pupils were from a school in the Kalasatama district in Helsinki. The school's principal confirmed to national broadcaster Yle that they had gone to Espoo on a school outing.
Such tours are typical in May, before the end of the Finnish school year in early June.
Yle reported that the pedestrian bridge was the property of the city of Espoo and not of the company carrying out construction work in the vicinity.
Police said the accident happened around 9:30 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) and the bridge was made of wood, mainly plywood plates.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin expressed their compassion on social media soon after the accident was reported. ■
