HORROR AS BRIDGE COLLAPSES
OFFICIALS last night said a motorway bridge collapse in the Italian city of Genova had killed “dozens” of people.
The collapse is shaping up to be a “huge tragedy”, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said.
A witness told Sky Italia television he saw “eight or nine” vehicles on the bridge when it collapsed in what he said was an “apocalyptic scene”.
DOZENS of people are feared dead after a bridge over an industrial area in the Italian city of Genova collapsed during a sudden and violent storm yesterday, leaving vehicles crushed in the rubble below.
The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France and other vacation resorts on the eve of a major Italian holiday, with traffic heavier than usual as many Italians travelled to beaches or mountains.
The transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, called the collapse, which happened at 11.30am local time (7.30pm Gold Coast time) “an enormous tragedy.”
The private broadcaster Sky TG24 said that a 200meter section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed over an industrial zone. Firefighters told The Associated Press that there are concerns about gas lines.
Photos published by the ANSA news agency on its website showed a huge gulf between two sections of the bridge.
Video captured the sound of a man screaming: “Oh god, oh, god.” Other images showed a green truck that had stopped just metres short of the gaping hole in the bridge.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said some 200 firefighters were responding to the accident.
“We are following minute by minute the situation for the bridge collapse in Genoa,” Salvini said on Twitter.
The Morandi Bridge was inaugurated in 1967. It is 90 metres high, just over a kilometre (about threequarters of a mile) long, with the longest section between supports measuring 200 metres.
The bridge is a main thoroughfare connecting the A10 highway that goes toward France and the A7 highway that continues north toward Milan.