Family outing turns to misery

Single father Mahesh spent every night of his final weeks cruising the streets of Morbi on his new scooter.

Paid for by years of backbreaking factory work, it was a tangible symbol of his Indian household's upward mobility. Now their future lies in ruins.

On his last joyride Mahesh took his young son and nephew to the town's main tourist attraction, a newly renovated suspension bridge where hundreds had gathered on Sunday evening for the last day of the annual Diwali holiday.

By the following morning, the trio's bodies had been pulled from a river and identified by distraught family, after India's worst bridge collapse in decades.

"It was so quick and sudden that I feel like it's just a dream," Jagdish, the elder brother of Mahesh, told AFP.

The two brothers lived together with their children. As well as the two boys, they have four daughters between them -- and extended family.

They eked out a modest living, earning around $120 a month as labourers in a ceramics factory.

Mahesh was raising his son and daughter single-handedly after his wife died a decade earlier, and had saved tirelessly for three years to buy the household its first-ever vehicle last month.

"He was taking everyone on a joyride in the evenings," said Jagdish, 43. "The children were excited... They used to clean it every day and plead for a ride when Mahesh came home from work."

Mahesh took his son Yuvraj, 12, and nephew Girish, 10, out on yet another journey on Sunday, and later news of the bridge collapse spread through the town.

Jagdish -- Girish's father -- raced to the accident site and frantically searched the river banks for any sign of the trio, before a neighbour called to tell him that his brother's body had been seen at a hospital. The bodies of the two boys  were pulled from the water the next morning.

All three were cremated that afternoon. Mahesh's scooter was found on the riverbank but for the family, it has become a bitter reminder of their final moments.

With search for more victims ongoing, 134 people have been confirmed dead -- among them 47 children. Nine people were arrested on homicide charges after it emerged that the 150-year-old bridge reopened without proper safety clearance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the accident site yesterday and has already promised to compensate the families of victims.

"The government will do their job and people will be punished but nothing will compensate our loss," said Jagdish.