US bridge collapse search continues

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As the official death count from the bridge collapse remained at four, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said more bodies were in the water.

The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, was being repaired when the bridge buckled during Wednesday's evening rush hour, plunging dozens of cars more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River, some falling on top of one another.

President George Bush offered condolences and pledged assistance to help the area recover as the search continued beneath the twisted steel and concrete slabs.

His pledge came as it emerged that officials in the US were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge was "structurally deficient".

But Minnesota officials relied on patchwork repairs and stepped-up inspections that unravelled amid a thunderous plunge of concrete and cars on Wednesday.

"We thought we had done all we could," state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan said. "Obviously something went terribly wrong."

Questions about the cause of the collapse and whether it could have been prevented arose as authorities shifted from rescue efforts to a grim recovery operation, searching for bodies that may be hidden beneath the river's swirling currents.

Police said the death count will surely grow because bodies had been spotted in the water and as many as 30 people were still reported missing.