A gang of thieves dismantled and hauled away a 500-ton, 60-foot iron bridge in eastern India.

Posing as irrigation officials in the Indian state of Bihar, police officer Subhash Kumar told reporters, the thieves had brought along bulldozers and gas cutters and took away the scrap in a heavy vehicle.

The thieves had been chipping away at the 50-year-old structure that spanned a water canal after a nearby bridge opened to the public five years ago, media reports said.

No arrests have been made so far and the incident triggered a political storm in India.

Constructed over the Arrah canal in 1972 at Amiyawar village under the Nasriganj police station, the old structure was however out of use.