Swaying bridge closed

Police in London have temporarily closed a pedestrian bridge across the River Thames on the first day it was open to the public.

The Millennium Bridge is made of a single arc of steel spanning the Thames near St Paul's Cathedral, and is the first new river crossing in the capital for a hundred years.

But it unnerved thousands of people who crossed it because they said it swayed so much under their weight, especially in the wind.

Some said they felt sea-sick.

Engineers who built the bridge said the motion was a deliberate feature and they insisted it was safe.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service