About 27 young people, most of them children, were injured after a pedestrian bridge collapsed in Espoo, Finland, local authorities said in a statement on Thursday.

The accident happened at around 9:20 a.m. local time (0620 GMT) when wooden planks are believed to have given way, causing the youths to fall to the ground. 

Helsinki hospital service HUS said "the injured belonged to a group of schoolchildren" and "the majority of the injuries are limb fractures." 

Twenty-four of the injured have been transported to various hospitals in the region. "No one has life-threatening injuries," HUS said in a statement. 

An investigation into the cause of the collapse is underway.

(With input from AFP)