Thank you for joining us for our coverage today.

The writers were Soutik Biswas, Zoya Mateen, Meryl Sebastian, Andrew Clarance and Adam Durbin. It was edited by Vikas Pandey, Sharanya Hrishikesh and Chris Giles.

For more on the bridge collapse tragedy, you can read our latest stories:

• Hopes fade for survivors in India bridge collapse
• 'I survived but my sister is still missing'
• In pictures: Morbi bridge collapse tragedy in India's Gujarat
• WATCH: Death toll rises to 141

A police official has confirmed to BBC Gujarati that eight people are being questioned in connection with the bridge collapse in Morbi.

Those being questioned include security personnel and ticket sellers. The person refused to confirm whether officials from Oreva Group, the firm which was in charge of maintaining the bridge, are also being questioned.

The Indian Express newspaper had reported that local police have filed a case against “the agency responsible for maintaining the bridge” and the “management agency” without naming anyone.

Tejas Vaidya
BBC Gujarati, Morbi

Jayeshbhai’s friend Rajesh was on the bridge when it collapsed on Sunday, and is still missing.

"I have looked everywhere for him," he says. "I've searched hospitals, the river banks and I even asked officials for help. But I did not get a proper answer from anyone."

He says his friend's family is devastated but they are "clinging to the hope" that Rajesh is alive.

Jayeshbhai is angry with the state government - "they are responsible for this tragedy," he says, adding the authorities should not have reopened the bridge without running adequate checks.

If you are just joining us, it's now just after 4pm on Monday in India and a rescue operation is still underway at the site of a bridge collapse, though officials say that the chances of finding more survivors seem low.

Here's a quick recap of what we know so far:

• At least 141 people have died and dozens more have been injured after a bridge collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday

• Hundreds of people were standing on the pedestrian suspension bridge - a major tourist attraction in Morbi district - when it collapsed into the Machchu river

• The victims mostly included children, women and elderly people, officials have said
• The bridge had been reopened just days ago after being closed for repairs
• Municipality officials have said that the bridge may have been reopened without a “fitness certificate”
• The Gujarat government has launched an investigation and is questioning eight people in connection with the collapse, which comes weeks ahead of key state elections.
• Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos at the site, while crematoriums were running full on Monday.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "pained" by the incident and has announced that he would visit Morbi on Tuesday.

Image source, Getty Images

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is among several political leaders who have expressed sympathy after the tragic bridge collapse in Morbi.

Mr Gandhi asked party workers to help victims as he extended his condolences to the bereaved families.

Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cancelled a road show in Haryana state ahead of by-polls in the area this week.

The chief ministers of Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have also sent condolences to the victims of the bridge tragedy.

While offering help to the victims, Congress Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge called for an inquiry into the accident.

He suggested it should be "headed by a retired Supreme or High Court judge" to examine how the bridge collapsed "five to six days [after its] inauguration" and establish "who allowed so many people there".

News channel NDTV is reporting that nearly 500 people were on the bridge when it collapsed.

Image source, ANI

Nothing could've prepared Mohanbhai Kundariya, a lawmaker from Gujarat state, for what happened on Sunday.

The politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lost 12 family members in one evening after the bridge snapped and collapsed, plunging hundreds of people into the river.

Mr Kundariya's sister and 11 others - including five children - were among the victims.

"This is very saddening," the BJP leader told news agency ANI after he reached the site of the accident on Monday.

Mr Kundariya suspects that the bridge collapsed due to overcrowding.

"There is a lot of silt in the water which is hampering rescue operations, but we are trying our best," he said.

Why was the maintenance of the 140-year-old suspension bridge which collapsed in Morbi given to a clock and lights maker?

According to reports, the Morbi-based Oreva group was awarded the contract to maintain the bridge by the local municipality.

But questions have been raised over why a company which once described itself as “world’s largest clock manufacturing company” - before it also began making lighting products, battery operated bikes, home appliances and TV sets - was given responsibility for maintaining a bridge.

Oreva also collected toll for travelling on the bridge – 17 rupees (21 cents; 18 pence) from adults and 12 rupees from children.

NDTV quoted a top company official, Deepak Parekh, telling the media earlier in October that the renovation work had cost the company "just" 20 million rupees.

"If people act responsibly without damaging the property, this renovation can sustain for the next 15 years," he was quoted as saying.

Local officials have been quoted as saying that the bridge was opened to the public after renovation was completed, but the municipality had not issued the mandatory "fitness certificate".

A spokesperson for Oreva was quoted as telling Indian Express newspaper: “While we are waiting for more information, prima facie, the bridge collapsed as too many people in the mid-section of the bridge were trying to sway it from one way to the other.”

Tejas Vaidya and Roxy Gagdekar
BBC Gujarati, Morbi

Distressing reports are emerging from Morbi, where crematoriums are running full after a bridge collapse killed at least 141 people.

Workers tell BBC Gujarati that the two main crematoriums in the city have been swamped with bodies since Sunday evening, even as a search for survivors continues.

Several social workers have joined the relief efforts and have been providing the victims’ families with logistical help - including wood needed for funeral pyres.

In cases where entire families were wiped out in the accident, locals are taking it upon themselves to perform their last rites.

Yogita Limaye
Morbi, Gujarat

Disaster response teams on inflatable orange rafts and military teams on green camouflage rafts are still scouring Machchu river.

Its been about 20 hours since the incident happened so it is unlikely that they will find any more survivors at this point but we have been told by an onlooker here that about an hour ago, one body was pulled out.

We are told that there are people still missing and that's what these rescue teams on boats are searching for.

Much of the wreckage has been pulled back using cranes. the debris looks like it has more or less been cleared.

On both banks of the river, there are lots of onlookers who have gathered to see what has happened.

We have been told that many of the bodies have already been handed over to the families and so cremations have been taking place through the day. Some of those injured are still in hospitals.

As we've been reporting, at least 141 people have died and many more injured in Gujarat after a pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed.

For anyone just joining us or in need of a catch-up on events in western India, here's a quick summary of what we know about the bridge itself:

• The bridge was reopened for use just days ago after being closed in March this year for maintenance
• The Machchu river crossing is a major tourist attraction in Morbi, with hundreds reaching there on Sunday as part of a religious festival
• Local authorities have suggested the bridge appears to have reopened without a proper "fitness certificate"
• The state government in Gujarat has launched an investigation into the collapse

Rescuers who were in the vicinity of the collapsed Indian bridge used makeshift ropes made of torn clothing to pull out more than 160 people from the river, a witness has said.

Kantilal Amrutiya, a former legislator from the Bharatiya Janata Party, told BBC News that he saw the bridge falling and managed to film and send out a video to local people to ask for help.

He explains that those near the bridge called the authorities immediately after it collapsed, but then entered the water themselves to save those at risk of drowning.

Mr Amrutiya says they were able to pull around 160 people from the river.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

The Gujarat government has announced an investigation into the reasons for the bridge collapse.

While official updates are still awaited, Indian engineers I spoke to believe that the suspension bridge - a bridge in which the deck is hung below cables on vertical suspenders - in Morbi may have collapsed due to poor maintenance.

“This is a 140-year-old bridge. You have to do regular, high-quality maintenance. The bearings, joints and rivets of the bridge have to be checked regularly. In India, we are not very rigorous about maintenance,” says Achyut Ghosh, a professor of structural engineering and a bridge expert.

Rahul Raj, a Delhi-based architect, says the quality of maintenance of infrastructure in India is "often compromised because the job goes to a firm which charges the lowest fees".

"Jobs have reduced, firms are reducing fees, and quality of work is suffering," Mr Raj says.

With their narrow walkaways, suspension bridges can sometimes sway when people walk on them, and often look precarious.

But Mr Ghosh says that hundreds of people standing on a suspension bridge was not likely to hurt the structure. “Bridges are designed and built for a lot of loading,” he says,

“But what people should not be doing is marching in unison on the suspension bridge.”

The reason is that bridges have a natural frequency of vibration. A force applied to the bridge at the same frequency from marching in unison would amplify the vibrations of the bridge and lead to a collapse.

It is not clear whether people were doing that on the bridge in Morbi before it collapsed.

Around the world, suspension bridges – the 4,200 ft-long Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is possibly the most famous and a marvel of engineering – have thrived. There are at least 10 suspension bridges around the world with spans longer than 1,300m (1.3 km), including four in China.

Image source, getty

Image source, Getty Images

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office has announced that he will visit the town of Morbi in Gujarat, where a bridge collapse has killed 141 people.

Mr Modi, who is already in his home state on a political visit, will go to the site of the accident on Tuesday, news agency ANI reports.

Earlier today, the prime minister said that he was deeply pained by the tragedy, which took place on Sunday evening.

"Rarely in my life, would I have experienced such pain. On one hand, there is a pain-riddled heart and on the other hand, there is the path to duty," he tweeted.

Expressing his condolences, he pledged the government's full support to families of those who died in the accident.

Roxy Gagdekar
BBC Gujarati, Morbi

Rescue operations are still underway in Gujarat's Morbi district, where at least 141 people have died after a colonial-era bridge collapsed on Sunday evening.

About 500 officials from the national and state disaster response forces are present at the site. Military personnel are also helping with the rescue efforts.

Officials are using cranes to pull out debris of the broken bridge from the river, while rescuers are travelling on small boats to look for more survivors.

So far, 133 bodies have been returned to family members. Their funerals are expected to take place in Morbi on Monday.

Morbi is a city on the banks of the Machchhu river in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The city is a thriving hub for the ceramic and clock making industries – there are about 390 ceramic and 150 wall clock makers in the area, according to the government.

The 230m (754ft)-suspension bridge, which collapsed on Sunday evening, crosses the Machchhu River. Officials in western India say the bridge had not received a safety certificate. A private company had taken control of the bridge and had spent seven months renovating the structure before reopening it last Wednesday.

It is not the first time a disaster has struck Morbi. In 1979, a dam burst in the area. The region was also affected by the 2000 earthquake in Gujarat, in which some 20,000 people died.

If you are just joining us, it's now just after midday on Monday in India and the rescue operation has now been going on for hours at the site of a bridge collapse. Here's a quick recap of what we know so far:

• At least 141 people have died and dozens more have been injured after a bridge collapsed in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Sunday

• Hundreds of people were standing on the pedestrian suspension bridge - a major tourist attraction in Morbi district - when it collapsed into the Machchu river

• The victims included several children, women and elderly people, officials have said
• The bridge had been reopened just days ago after being closed for repairs.
• Municipality officials have said that the bridge may have been reopened without a “fitness certificate”
• The Gujarat government has opened an investigation into the tragedy, which comes weeks ahead of key state elections
• Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos at the site, as they searched for their loved ones

Read more eyewitness accounts here

The BBC's Roxy Gadekar, who is at the scene, reports that rescue teams are still trying to recover bodies from the river. Most of the bodies being recovered are of women and children.

Prasanna Kumar, the commander of the National Disaster Response Force, told the BBC that they would continue the operation until everyone has been accounted for.

"It was difficult at night since the water is stagnant and there is sewage in the river. The visibility was low, so it was difficult to spot bodies," he said.

With daybreak, rescue teams were able to look under the wreckage of the broken bridge and found more bodies.

"We will search the whole river and leave no room for doubt," he said.

"Search will continue and we will not rest."

Meanwhile, a few stretchers lie on the bank of the river as bodies are pulled by rescue teams from the murky water and brought to shore.

Parts of a small dam, which is around 500m downstream from the wreckage of the bridge, have been broken to reduce the water level in the river to help rescuers.

A young man who was standing on the bridge with his six-year-old sister when it collapsed was inconsolable when he told BBC Gujarati that he was unable to find her.

"We were standing on the bridge. There were hundreds of people."

"I climbed this bridge for the first time. My sister and I were taking photos on our mobile and suddenly, the bridge collapsed."

"My sister and I fell in the water. I survived but my sister is still missing."

He added that he had been looking for her since Sunday evening.

"I went to the government hospital, searched everywhere, but my sister is nowhere to be found."

Read more eyewitness accounts here.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

This is not the first time disaster has struck the river in Morbi.

In August 1979, a year-old earthen dam on the river, weakened by incessant rain, collapsed and sent two-storey high flood waters four miles downstream into the city of Morbi, reportedly killing thousands of residents.

Media reports from the time say bodies were “scattered along the roadways and there was a blanket of mud that reached the second floors of some buildings”. More than 60% of the houses in the city were damaged, reports said.

The United News of India reported that many residents - the city then contained some 60,000 people - were without food or safe drinking water, and the floods had damaged the city’s telephone exchange, making communication difficult.

India's neighbours and allies have offered solidarity to the country as the toll in the Morbi bridge disaster continues to rise.

The tragedy comes just a day after 154 people died in a crowd crush in South Korea on Saturday night.

"We grieve with you," Bhutan PM Lotay Tshering wrote on Twitter as he offered condolences.

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also sent condolences to the government and people of India.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who was in India last week, said the tragedy was painful.