MIAMI, MAR 15 (DNA) –  A newly installed pedestrian bridge spanning several lanes of traffic collapsed at Florida International University on Thursday, killing several people and crushing vehicles caught in the rain of rubble in Miami-Dade County, officials said.

“Several people were killed. I just don’t know how many,” Alejandro Camacho, a spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol said in a telephone interview.

There were at least five to six vehicles crushed underneath the pedestrian crosswalk, he added.

Munilla Construction Management, which installed the bridge, in a statement on Twitter, said the bridge suffered a “catastrophic collapse causing injuries and loss of life.”

The bridge connects the university with the city of Sweetwater and was installed on Saturday in six hours over the eight-lane highway, according to a story that was posted on the university’s website. It was 174 feet (53 m) long and weighed 950 tons.

The bridge was intended to provide a walkway over southwest Eighth Street, one of the busiest roads in South Florida. An 18-year-old female FIU student from San Diego was killed while trying to cross the street near FIU last August, according to local media reports.