BRIDGE COLLAPSE CARNAGE
Up to 35 feared dead as cars plunge 150ft in Italy ‘apocalypse’
‘We used to cross it praying it wouldn’t fall down’
Up to 35 people, including a young child, were feared dead last night after a motorway bridge collapsed in Northern Italy.
The death toll is predicted to rise as rescuers search for survivors among the rubble following the ‘immense tragedy’.
Around 300ft of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa – including a support tower – collapsed at around 11.30am local time during torrential rainfall.
Witnesses reported an ‘apocalyptic scene’ as 35 cars and up to ten lorries plunged nearly 150ft, along with tonnes of twisted steel and concrete debris, onto warehouses below.
Incredibly four people were pulled alive from cars found in the mangled ruins and transported to hospital by helicopter. Officials said at least 16 people were injured, five seriously.
Last night efforts to find more victims continued as sniffer dogs sifted through the rubble.
The exact cause remained unclear last night, though several witnesses said the bridge was hit by a bolt of lightning seconds before it crumbled.
According to local reports, authorities believe a structural weakness was behind the collapse.
Residents said they had ‘always had concerns’ about its safety, with one telling the BBC: ‘Nobody has ever crossed that bridge with a light heart.
‘Everybody has always done it praying that the bridge wouldn’t fall down. Today that happened.’
Italy’s anti-establishment government said the disaster showed Italy needed to spend more to improve its dilapidated infrastructure – ignoring EU budget constraints if necessary. They warned that ‘those responsible will have to pay’.
The bridge crumbled over a river, railway tracks and industrial buildings. Train services were cancelled, and around 300 firefighters attended the scene amid concerns damaged gas lines could explode.
Dramatic photos showed vehicles stranded on either side of the collapsed section. A green lorry was perilously near the gaping hole, having stopped just in time.
One driver told how he survived despite his car plummeting into the rubble. Former goalkeeper Davide Capello, who played for Sardinian side Cagliari, told news channel Sky TG24: ‘I was driving along and at a certain point I saw the road in front of me collapse, and I went down with the car.’ The shaken 33-year- old said he managed to clamber out of his car, which was ‘ attached to a pylon’, and climb down the rubble.
‘I was able to get out ... I don’t know how my car wasn’t crushed. It seemed like a scene from a film, it was the apocalypse,’ he said.
The road connects Italy to France and leads to tourist hotspots including Milan. It was likely to have been experiencing heavier traffic than usual as people travelled ahead of Italian holiday Ferragosto today.
Restructuring work on the bridge, which was opened in 1967 and is 295ft high and just over three-quarters of a mile long, was carried out in 2016. The highway operator said work to shore up the foundations was being carried out at the time of the collapse. Stefano Marigliani, of motorway operator Autostrade, said: ‘The collapse was unexpected and unpredictable. The bridge was constantly monitored, even more than was foreseen by the law. There was no reason to consider the bridge dangerous.’
But speaking in 2016, Antonio Brencich, a professor of engineering at the University of Genoa, called the bridge ‘an engineering failure’, adding: ‘Sooner or later it will have to be replaced.’
One man told newspaper Il Secolo XIX he saw the bridge oscillate more than usual yesterday. ‘The bridge often oscillates, for trucks,’ he said. ‘But this morning I had the feeling ... that this oscillation was much more marked than usual.’
The incident follows a string of bridge collapses in Italy, where infrastructure is showing the effects of economic stagnation. Claudio Borghi, economics spokesman of the right-wing League party, which governs with the 5-Star Movement, said it ‘reminds us of the public investments that we so badly need.’
Deputy transport minister Edoardo Rixi told SkyNews24: ‘It’s not acceptable that such an important bridge ... was not built to avoid this kind of collapse.’ Interior minister Matteo Salvini added: ‘I will do everything to get the names and surnames of the managers responsible, past and present.’