SAO PAULO — Brazilian officials announced on Thursday that the number of bodies recovered after a bridge linking two northern states collapsed four days earlier has increased to eight.

Reports indicate that the Brazilian navy is currently searching for at least nine individuals who remain unaccounted for. This tragic incident occurred on Sunday when a segment of the Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira Bridge gave way, causing several vehicles to plunge into a deep river below.

According to police stationed at the border of Maranhao and Tocantins, eight vehicles were involved in the incident, which included four trucks, two cars, and two motorcycles. An investigation into the cause of the collapse is underway, as stated by both police and Brazil’s road department. However, efforts to search the river have been hampered due to potential dangers posed by sulfuric acid that was being transported in one of the trucks.

Caco Graca, a supervisor from Maranhao’s environment secretariat, informed reporters that the threat of a chemical spill has decreased since the truck’s cargo, comprising 76 tons of sulfuric acid and 22,000 liters of agrochemicals, was confirmed to be intact. He noted that none of the chemical tanks has been removed yet.

“The worst-case scenario would have been a leak of the cargo during the fall, which fortunately did not occur,” Graca explained to the media, adding that the tanks remain undamaged.

The bridge, stretching 533 meters (1,748 feet) in length, connects the cities of Estreito and Aguiarnopolis and was constructed in the 1960s. It is situated approximately 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) north of the nation’s capital, Brasilia.