At least 35 people were feared to have died when a large section of a motorway bridge collapsed in the northern Italian city of Genoa.

The emergency services said at least 13 others were injured, including five in critical condition, as rescue workers battled to find people trapped under the rubble. City authorities said 20 people were confirmed dead but local media reports, citing emergency services, said the death toll had reached 35 by Tuesday evening.

“We are still trying to extract survivors from the rubble,” Genoa police official Alessandra Bucci told Reuters. “We hope to find more people alive.”

Authorities estimated that 30 vehicles were on the section of the bridge when it collapsed on Tuesday during torrential rain. At least one lorry was seen falling off the bridge, known as the Morandi viaduct, and some other vehicles under the bridge were badly damaged.

The 80m-long section of the bridge that crumbled stood about 45m over the Polcevera river as well as railway tracks and an industrial and retail estate, which includes an Ikea store and other shopping centres, normally packed with shoppers on a rainy day.
One witness, Silvia Vieri, a 29-year-old resident, told the Financial Times that she was on her way to do some shopping when the bridge collapsed: “The rain was really heavy. I was almost under the bridge, when I saw it collapsing. It came down like sand. I saw cars falling down. The truck a few metres ahead on the road [under the bridge], was hit hard and damaged by masonry that fell down. The driver luckily survived but he came out with his face covered in blood.”

The bridge is part of the A10 toll motorway — a major route linking the French and Italian Rivieras — and was opened in 1967. Autostrade, the Italian toll road operator which is responsible for maintaining the bridge, said it was carrying out work on the foundations at the time of the collapse.

Source: Financial Times

BDST: 1106 HRS, AUG 15, 2018
SI