Recovery efforts were going better than expected Friday as the search continued for eight bodies amid the twisted wreckage of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, officials said.

Search and recovery efforts continue Friday at the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi River during the evening rush hour Wednesday.
(M. Spencer Green/Associated Press)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed the dam and lowered the water by about two feet, making it easier for the divers to navigate through the strong currents, Hennepin County Capt. Bill Chandler said.

But the murky waters are still considered hazardous for the divers, four of whom have been hurt since Wednesday. They have had to contend with concrete debris, and low visibility — able to see only up to 15 centimetres in front of them.

"One hundred per cent of this site is dangerous," said Minneapolis fire Chief Jim Clack. "There's different degrees of danger depending on where you're operating, but there's no place down there that's safe."

The official death toll rose to five early Friday as the medical examiner's office confirmed a fifth body was pulled from the river overnight. Another 79 people were injured.

One woman who had been unaccounted for, and whose car was recovered, was located at her work, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek told a news conference Friday.

But Stanek said it will take some time before they can provide accurate numbers on the number of victims and vehicles involved in the accident.

"It's a terrible mess, quite honestly," Stanek said. "We don't know how many cars were up on the bridge when it collapsed, we don't know how many victims were in the vehicles themselves.

"There's a lot of questions that we just don't know the answers to."

Stanek said divers located and cleared four of five vehicles submerged in the water. There were no victims found inside. Officials were able to match up two people to the vehicles — one is in the hospital and another is alive.

But they could not get access to a fifth car which is underneath another vehicle. 

The afternoon search was turning to the west bank of the river, where five targets — possible vehicles — had been identified with sonar.

"There are windows down in some of the cars which allows people to get out. We are going to go under the assumption that there are still people there no matter what," Chandler said.

The eight-lane bridge collapsed under rush-hour traffic at 6:05 p.m. CT Wednesday, sending more than 50 cars plunging 20 metres into the Mississippi River.

Sadiya Sahal and her 20-month-old daughter Hanah were on the bridge when it collapsed. They are still missing.
(Courtesy of Somali Justice Advocacy Center)

Officials have warned the number of fatalities is almost certain to rise, with eight people still missing and presumed dead. Authorities at the site had earlier said as many as 30 people were believed missing.

Several vehicles are underneath slabs of concrete and there are people in them, Minneapolis police Chief Tim Dolan said.

A diver swims in the Mississippi River during search-and-recover efforts Thursday.
(Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jerry Holt/Associated Press)

"This is going to take a long time," Dolan told reporters.

Among the missing is Sadiya Sahal, 23, and her two-year-old daughter, Hanah Mohamed. Sahal, who is five months pregnant, left home at 5:15 p.m. CT with the toddler in the back seat.

She called her family at 5:30 p.m. saying she was stuck in traffic on the bridge, according to Omar Jamal, a spokesman for the family. That was her last phone call.

"Her husband is destroyed. He's in shock," Jamal said.

Bridge 'structurally deficient' but safe: officials

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker said his investigators received two big breaks Thursday, with a surveillance video showing the collapse and a computer program that would analyze how the bridge failed.

Officials confirmed Thursday that the 40-year-old bridge had been rated "structurally deficient" but was considered safe to use.

"There was a view that the bridge was ultimately and eventually going to need to be replaced," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said during a news conference.

"There was no call by anyone that we're aware of that said it should be immediately closed or immediately replaced. It was more a monitor, inspect and maintain, and replace it in the future."

In 1990, the U.S. government gave the bridge a rating of "structurally deficient," citing significant corrosion in its bearings. A 2005 federal inspection also rated the bridge in that manner.

During the 1990s, inspections found fatigue cracks and corrosion in the steel around the bridge's joints, and repairs were made.

Dan Dorgan, of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, said there were cracks in the welds since the day the bridge was built, but those cracks were stable. Inspections in 2005 and in 2006 found no evidence of additional cracking or growth of pre-existing cracks.

With files from the Associated Press