New Delhi, July 12 - In one of the worst accidents involving Delhi Metro, a bridge under construction in a congested area of south Delhi collapsed Sunday, killing five people, including an engineer, and injuring 15 others.

A water pipeline burst due to the impact, leading to the area getting swamped in water. The accident, which took place near the well-known Lady Shri Ram College for women, caused disruption in the traffic.

The bridge that collapsed was part of an elevated section of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's (DMRC) new route on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur section. The incident took place at around 5 a.m. at the construction site at Zamrudpur near Amar Colony. A launching girder along with a portion of the bridge set up on pre-fabricated pillars collapsed.

The section was slated to be open September 2010, a month before the Commonwealth Games next year.

'Five people have died and of the deceased three died in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre while two dead are yet to be taken out of the debris at the construction site,' (DMRC) spokesperson Anuj Dayal told reporters here.

Three of the dead have been identified as Anshuman, a site engineer, and construction workers Niranjan and Badan Singh, Dayal said. The injured were taken to AIIMS, Safdarjung and Moolchand hospitals.

The work at the stretch was being undertaken by Gammon India Ltd, contracted by DMRC. Thirty workers were present at the site -- most of them from Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh -- at the time of the incident.

Delhi Police have registered a case of negligence against the company.

Construction workers allege that the pillar on which the bridge was to be hoisted was faulty.

'There were cracks in the pillar and we had warned the contractor and officials - but they paid no heed,' said a construction labourer.

Said Joint Commissioner of Police (southern range) Ajay Kashyap: 'Our immediate priority is to clear the debris and to carry out rescue operations.