In one of the worst labor incidents in India this year, at least five people were killed and 20 others seriously hurt when an under-construction overbridge of the Indian Metro Railway collapsed early Sunday morning in the Indian capital, a police official said.

"The under-construction bridge collapsed suddenly when one of its pillars failed to withhold the pressure of a launcher at upmarket Lajpat Nagar area in the capital's south at 05:00 a.m.. All the five dead and some of the 20 injured actually got trapped under the debris of the bridge," the official said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Metro said the incident was due to a "problem in the design" of the pillar.

"We were trying to rectify it. There was a defect in the peer cap which caused the displacement," Delhi Metro spokesperson Anuj Dayal told the media, adding a probe has been ordered into the incident.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit said that the incident is " unfortunate" and assured that compensation would soon be handed out to the family of the deceased as well as those injured.

This is the second Metro Railway accident in eight months. Last October, two persons were killed and 16 injured when another under- construction bridge collapsed and fell on a bus in east Delhi.

Indian fire-brigade officials said earlier two laborers working at the site were killed.

All the dead and injured were rural contract construction workers, said police.

The Indian capital is expanding its metro rail system to meet the demand of the residents and in preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2009)