Hundreds missing after Nepal bridge collaps

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- A suspension bridge overloaded with as many as 1,000 people attending a Hindu religious festival collapsed Tuesday, sending most of them into the raging river in a remote region of Nepal, according to Nepalese police.

Between 400 and 500 people who were on the bridge are now missing, while only 11 bodies have been recovered hours later, police said.

"The bridge collapsed because there were hundreds of people on it," said Nepal police officer Nibandha Budha. "They had gone to the river for a three-day Hindu religious festival on the occasion of full moon."

The 500-yard-long bridge spanned the snow-fed Bheri River in the Surkhet district, about 280 miles (450 kilometers) southwest of Kathmandu. The river is fed by snow from the Himalayas.

The number of people on the bridge is estimated between 700 and 1,000, Budha said. E-mail to a friend

Journalist Manesh Shrestha in Kath