CHANDIGARH, SHIMLA, SEPTEMBER 8 Hope shines through Manreet’s tears. ‘‘Is he alright? Do you have any news about my husband?’’ The dinner is laid on the table but no one’s eating. ‘‘I will eat only after I hear from Amardeep,’’ says Manreet’s mother-in-law.

At the Chandigarh home of Lt Col Amardeep Singh, one of the 33 Army personnel swept away by the Sutlej after the bridge they were working on collapsed today at Kharo in Himachal’s Kinnaur district, the family can only wait.

Only five Armymen managed to swim to safety. By evening, the Himachal government confirmed 20 deaths but was unable to explain what led to the collapse of the bridge.

Sumit Khimta, Kinnaur’s sub-divisional magistrate, told The Indian Express over phone from Reckong Peo that ‘‘chances of finding survivors are nil, the bridge simply crumbled.’’ He, however, put the number of personnel lost at 23. ‘‘Only those working at the two ends of the bridge managed to make it to the banks.’’

The bridge, crucial for strategic road communications with Pooh, was nearing completion. The bridges at Kharo, Akpa and Khab were among the dozen bridges destroyed by the flash floods in Kinnaur two months ago. The Army’s 18 Engineers had sent a contingent of some 40 jawans to build a Bailey bridge at Kharo three weeks ago.

‘‘The iron bridge was tested beforehand. But we are told that the supporting pillars crumbled and the entire bridge gave way,’’ said a jawan at Zirakpur, the regiment station on Chandigarh’s outskirts.

He had just received a call from a fellow jawan’s family in Kerala. ‘‘My friend is no more but how can I tell them,’’ he said. Only one of the missing jawan’s wife lives in the family quarters in Zirakpur, but she too has not been told anything.