KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A new footbridge across a river collapsed while schoolchildren crossed it during a camping trip in Malaysia, killing at least one girl and leaving two missing and feared drowned in the currents below, officials said Tuesday.

Police, firefighters and emergency services personnel scoured the Kampar River in northern Malaysia where the students went missing late Monday, Perak state Chief Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said.

"They are looking for the bodies," Zambry told The Associated Press. Search teams found the body of one girl and were searching for the two other students, said Aziz Salleh, police chief of Kampar district. Police earlier said up to 22 children were missing, and Salleh blamed the error on inaccurate records of about 300 students who were on the trip.

About 20 children managed to cling to the 160-foot-long (50-meter-long) suspension bridge when it collapsed, said Chen Fook Chye, a state lawmaker at the scene. "There is a lot of confusion right now, a lot of worried parents," Chen said. K. Mathivanan, 12, said the bridge had been swaying and abruptly collapsed after some students jumped on it.

The scene turned chaotic as students screamed for help and started crying, Mathivanan told the national news agency, Bernama. The two-week-old bridge was built to replace an old one that had fallen apart ith age, the report said.

Five killed in restive Thai south

YALA, Thailand (AFP) - Suspected Islamic insurgents shot dead three villagers in Thailand's restive south while a policemen and a militant were killed in a clash between rebels and security forces, police said Tuesday. Two Buddhist villagers, aged 19 and 46, were killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province Monday afternoon by four militants travelling on two motorbikes, they said.

Also in Pattani, a 29-year-old militant and a border patrol police officer were killed in a gunfight on Monday evening, in which another policeman was wounded. In a separate incident in the same province late Monday, police said a 23-year-old Muslim villager was shot and killed by suspected rebels while he was travelling by motorcycle. More than 3,900 people have been killed in Thailand's southernmost provinces since a bitter uprising erupted in January 2004.

The shadowy insurgents in the Muslim-majority region target civilians and security forces, both Buddhists and Muslims. Around 60,000 troops are now stationed in the area. The region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until 1902 when it was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand, sparking decades of tension.