ESPOO, Finland: Some 27 young people, mostly children, were injured in Finland on Thursday when they fell five meters onto a road after a temporary footbridge near a construction site collapsed.
The accident occurred at around 9:20 am (0620 GMT) in Espoo, near the capital, Helsinki, when wooden planks gave way and the group landed on the carriageway of a small side road.
Most of the injured were eighth-year pupils aged around 14 or 15, who were on a school field trip to an art museum, city officials said. Their teacher was among the injured.
“We did not have to rescue anyone from immediate danger,” Kalle Ristola, fire chief at Western Uusimaa Rescue Department, told reporters.
“I saw the bridge was no longer up and many people (were) on the ground,” Jaakko Markkula, who lives on the fifth floor of a building near the accident site, told AFP.
The first of the 14 ambulances sent arrived at the scene in less than five minutes.
Twenty-four people were taken to various hospitals in the Helsinki region.
“No one has life-threatening injuries,” Helsinki’s hospital service HUS said, adding that the majority had limb fractures.
“There has been no indication of any risk of paralysis but there are some head injuries involved as well,” HUS medical director Eero Hirvensalo told reporters.
An AFP reporter at the scene said the sides of the footbridge were intact but there was a gaping hole across half of it, with a pile of wooden planks in a jumble under one end.
Rescue workers could be seen treating multiple people lying on the road shortly after the accident.
The cause of the collapse has not been confirmed and is being investigated, the Espoo city authorities said.
Jyrki Kallio, detective inspector at the Western Uusimaa Police Department, said they were looking into the potential crime of causing danger and injury.
The head of the Helsinki city education department, Satu Jarvenkallas, told AFP the injured were pupils from the Kalasatama comprehensive school in the capital.
“They were on a normal field trip to the Emma Art Museum,” she said.
A crisis team has been set up at the school, she added.
The city of Espoo said weekly inspections had been conducted on the structure, most recently on May 5.
Jarno Tuuri, the contractor whose company built the bridge, told the Iltalehti daily “nothing out of the usual was observed” during weekly checks.
“The situation is of course very bad. We’re now checking all the structures and making the necessary additional reinforcements,” he said.
“We’re assisting the authorities in every way we can,” he added.
Espoo mayor Jukka Makela, expressed his “regrets,” adding: “This simply should not happen.”
“Shocking news from Espoo. Our strength to those injured in the accident and their loved ones. You are in our thoughts,” Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Twitter.
Finnish footbridge collapse injures 27, mostly children
https://arab.news/ymzse
Finnish footbridge collapse injures 27, mostly children
- The accident occurred at around 9:20 am in Espoo, near the capital, Helsinki, when wooden planks gave way and the group landed on the carriageway of a small side road
- Most of the injured were eighth-year pupils aged around 14 or 15
Regional health organization issues alert as measles cases surge across the Americas
- In the first three weeks of 2026, PAHO confirmed 1,031 new measles cases across seven countries — a staggering 43-fold increase compared to the same period last year
MEXICO CITY: The Pan American Health Organization, PAHO, on Wednesday issued a new epidemiological alert following a surge of measles cases across the Americas, with Mexico reporting the highest numbers. It also called for urgent vaccination campaigns, highlighting that 78 percent of recent cases involved unvaccinated people.
The alert follows Canada’s loss of measles-free status in November — a setback the United States and Mexico could soon mirror. While both governments have requested a two-month extension to contain their respective outbreaks, the situation is complicated by the Trump administration’s January withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the parent agency of PAHO.
Current data is discouraging; the upward trend persists with only months remaining before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across the three North American host nations.
In the first three weeks of 2026, PAHO confirmed 1,031 new measles cases across seven countries — a staggering 43-fold increase compared to the same period last year.
While no deaths have been reported thus far, the concentration remains high: Mexico leads with 740 cases, followed by the United States with 171 and Canada with 67.
The state of Jalisco, in western Mexico, has recorded the country’s highest incidence rate this year, following last year’s major outbreaks in Chihuahua and neighboring Texas.
In the United States, public health attention has shifted toward South Carolina, where cases are rising. In response, the Mexican government has spent weeks urging the public to receive the two-dose vaccine.
Authorities have even established mobile vaccination clinics in high-traffic hubs like airports and bus terminals, while in the capital, Mayor Clara Brugada launched 2,000 new vaccination modules this week.
“Everyone under 49 years of age, please get vaccinated,” Brugada urged on Tuesday, emphasizing that the vaccine is now accessible throughout the city. To maximize reach, the new modules are being stationed outside health centers and within major subway stations, bringing the campaign directly to the city’s busiest transit corridors.
PAHO’s alert follows a year of sustained growth in measles cases — the highest in five years — driven by a global resurgence and what the agency describes as “persistent immunization gaps.”
While adolescents and young adults account for the largest volume of cases, the highest incidence rates are striking children under the age of one. The disparity underscores a critical need to reinforce second-dose coverage.
Regional data is grim: only 33 percent of countries have reached the 95 percent threshold for the first vaccine dose, and a mere 20 percent have achieved it for the second.
