Dresden rushes to remove collapsed bridge amid flood warning

Workers in the eastern German city of Dresden on Friday rushed to clear away chunks of a partially collapsed bridge before water levels on the Elbe river rise too far.

It comes amid major flood warnings for much of central Europe and the state of Saxony and the expectation of those floodwaters arriving in the city.

What do we know about Dresden's Carola Bridge?

A 100-meter (330-foot) piece of the Carolabrücke bridge in Dresden in the state of Saxony collapsed and fell into the Elbe river early on Wednesday.

The bridge is a key tram, cycling and pedestrian route. However, there were no casualties as the collapse occurred at 3:08 a.m. local time.

The bridge is around 400 meters long in total and made up of three sections. The collapse came after two sections of the bridge had recently been repaired

What else do we know about the removal work?

Part of the bridge came down early on Friday during controlled demolition work, with far more of the structure compromised than what fell into the water.

Engineers had begun demolishing the damaged part of the bridge on Thursday evening.

Officials said that demolition work would be completed by Sunday evening.

The German DPA news agency cited Simone Prüfer, head of Dresden's Road and Civil Engineering Department, as saying that the Elbe river would likely reach 4 meters by the end of the week.

Prüfer said that experts were currently calculating the effects of the expected flooding.

"We're running out of time here. We are really fighting against the clock here," fire service spokesman Michael Klahre said at a press conference.

The German military, known as the Bundeswehr, was also involved in the removal efforts.

Continuous rainfall is expected in eastern areas of Saxony and flood warnings have been issued for the Spree and Lausitzer Neisse rivers.

sdi/msh (AFP, dpa)