Condolence meetings held in Guj as state mourns loss of lives

Ahmedabad/ Morbi: Civic bodies in Ahmedabad and Surat held condolence meetings as Gujarat observed state-wide mourning on Wednesday to pay homage to the victims of the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy.

CM Bhupendra Patel was present at the condolence meet organised by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

Flags were flown at half-mast at the state secretariat in Gandhinagar and other Gujarat government offices. All official and entertainment programmes were cancelled.

The collapse of the bridge on Sunday evening claimed 135 lives.

Similar prayer meetings were also held in other parts of the state.

The decision to observe the state-wide mourning was taken on Monday in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the situation after the tragedy.

CM Bhupendra Patel had in a tweet said no official function will be held on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday called for a "detailed and extensive" inquiry into the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy and said its key learnings must be implemented at the earliest.

He had chaired a high-level meeting in Morbi to review the situation, the Prime Minister's Office earlier said.

Caretakers of crematoriums and graveyards in Morbi town said they never saw a huge influx of bodies in a short span of time in decades, which they witnessed in the aftermath of the bridge collapse tragedy.

Sajid Piludia of Morbi's biggest graveyard for Sunni Muslims said nearly 40 members of the Muslim community lost their lives in the incident.

Bhima Thakor, caretaker of a gas-run crematorium in Morbi town said he performed the last rites of 11 persons on two days - on Monday and Tuesday.

Dr Pradip Dudhrejia, Superintendent of Morbi Civil Hospital said since the cause of the death of the victims was known (drowning), post-mortem was not conducted.