A newly installed pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday, killing several people and crushing vehicles caught in the rain of rubble in Miami-Dade County, officials said. "Several people were killed. I just don't know how many," Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol said in a telephone interview. There were at least five to six vehicles crushed underneath the pedestrian crosswalk, he added.

At least six injured people were taken away from the scene and eight vehicles were trapped in the bride wreckage, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in an interview with CBS Miami.

Police had requested television helicopters to leave the area so rescuers could hear for any sounds of people crying for help from beneath the collapsed structure, the Miami TV station said. Munilla Construction Management, which installed the bridge, in a statement on Twitter, said the bridge suffered a "catastrophic collapse causing injuries and loss of life."

Copyright Reuters, 2018