RESCUE EFFORTS CONTINUE IN ITALY
Workers search for survivors after deadly Genoa bridge collapse
RESCUE workers toiled through a second night yesterday in a desperate bid to find survivors in the rubble of a bridge here which caved in during a heavy rainstorm, killing at least 39 people and injuring 16 more.
A vast span of the Morandi bridge collapsed in the northern port city on Tuesday, sending about 35 cars and several trucks plunging 45m onto railway tracks below.
Italy’s government has blamed the firm that operated the collapsed bridge for the disaster and announced a state of emergency in the region.
Children aged eight, 12 and 13 were among the dead, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said, adding that more people were missing. Sixteen people were injured.
The driver of a green lorry left precariously close to the edge told media how he had escaped the “hell” of the bridge collapse.
“It was raining very hard and it wasn’t possible to go fast,” he told the Corriere della Sera daily.
“When a car overtook me I slowed down... (then) at a certain moment everything shook. The car in front of me disappeared and seemed to be swallowed up by the clouds. I looked up and saw the bridge pylon fall,” he said.
“Instinctively, finding myself in front of the void, I put the van into reverse, to escape this hell.”
Three Chileans, who live in Italy, and four French nationals were also killed.
The tragedy has focused anger on the structural problems that have dogged the decades old Morandi bridge and the private sector firm Autostrade per l’Italia, which is currently in charge of operating and maintaining swathes of the country’s motorways.