Dozens missing after bridge collapses in India

Dozens of people remain missing after a bridge collapsed on the Mumbai-Goa highway in western India, plunging buses into the flooded river below.

Dozens are feared dead after a bridge collapses on Mumbai-Goa highway in India. Source: Supplied, Twitter

Two or three vehicles carrying dozens of people have plunged into a flooded river after a portion of an old bridge collapsed on the Mumbai-Goa highway in western India.

Police officer Sanjay Patil says rescuers have not seen the vehicles or any survivors hours after the bridge collapsed about midnight on Tuesday.

OP Singh, chief of the state-run National Disaster Response Force, said 80 rescuers, including divers, rushed to the area but their efforts were being hampered by heavy rains.

Singh says the first reports said at least two buses fell into the Savitri river flooded by heavy monsoon rains.

Goa is a popular tourist resort.

Officials said traffic has been diverted to a new bridge in the area.

The old bridge that collapsed was built in the 1940s.