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Peru bridge collapse kills 8


    LIMA (Reuters) - A suspension bridge packed with school children snapped in Peru on Monday, killing at least 8 and injuring dozens of others who plunged into a deep ravine, the mayor of the Andean mountain town of Coracora said.

    "We've suffered a grave accident, a suspension bridge that goes to a high school has fallen, it has broken in two, and we have a large number of students injured and dead," Mayor Walter Antayhua told RPP radio.

    Most of the injured were aged 10 and 13, but reports said several teachers were with the children when the bridge collapsed.

    The bridge was 130 feet (40 metres)long and stretched above a canyon that is up to 320 feet (98 metres) deep, the mayor said. The town is about 370 miles (600 km) southeast of Lima, the capital.

    "We need a helicopter because there are children who are dying," Alfonso Paredes, a town resident, said from the poorly equipped hospital from where doctors were hoping to evacuate patients to trauma centres.

    At least 40 other victims were taken to the hospital, 13 of them with serious injuries.

    "The injuries are grave," said Fernando Valencia, a doctor at the hospital.

    (Reporting by Marco Aquino and Terry Wade; Editing by Sandra Maler)