Desperate hunt for survivors in rubble of Italian bridge that collapsed during storm
Drivers describe ‘miracle’ escapes as 150ft-high road bridge crumbled to the ground after thunderstorm
FIREFIGHTERS with sniffer dogs worked into the night, searching for survivors beneath the wreckage of a giant bridge that collapsed in Genoa.
As many as 22 people, including a child, were feared to have died in the disaster, which happened as the Italian port city was struck by an intense thunderstorm.
Officials said 16 people were injured, 10 of them critically. Four people were pulled alive from the rubble.
Dozens of cars and lorries plunged 150ft to the ground when the elevated motorway collapsed yesterday morning. “We are still trying to extract survivors from the rubble,” Alessandra Bucci, a Genoa police official, said. “We hope to find more people alive.”
Huge slabs of reinforced concrete landed on warehouses and other buildings, most of which were unoccu- pied because of the holidays. Italy’s populist government, which came to power in June, blamed the collapse on years of underinvestment, shoddy maintenance and EU budget constraints.
One survivor, Davide Capello, a former footballer with Serie A club Cagliari, walked away from the disaster after his car went down with the bridge. “I saw the road in front of me collapse,” he told TV news channel Sky TG24. He managed to clamber out of his car, which was “attached to a pylon”, before climbing down the rubble.
ANOTHER four yards and he would have been dead.
Antonio Rubino slammed on the brakes of his car just short of the point at which the bridge in Genoa collapsed.
A few seconds later and he would have plunged to the ground – as did all the cars and trucks in front of him.
He was one of several drivers to cheat death yesterday when the Morandi bridge collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm and torrential rain.
“I was the last car behind those who died,” said Mr Rubino. “In front of me the asphalt just completely collapsed. I’m alive by a miracle. Luckily I was not shunted from behind otherwise I would have gone down with the others. I was three, maybe four metres from the abyss. There was total panic. People got out of the cars and ran.”
The driver of a supermarket delivery van also reacted in time, screeching to a halt just short of the 150ft drop.
The unnamed driver was in deep shock, said Giovanni D’alessandro, the director general of supermarket chain Basko.
“He’s OK but he’s in shock. It’s a stretch of road that our vans use every day. There’s heavy traffic and often you can’t drive very fast. Perhaps that’s why the driver had time to brake.”
At least 22 people, including a child, died in the collapse of the motorway bridge, with up to 35 cars and up to 10 trucks plummeting to the ground.
“People are dead and many others are seriously injured,” Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister, said.
Nearly 300 firefighters and rescue workers battled into the night to find survivors beneath giant mounds of concrete debris and twisted steel girders. They used sniffer dogs to detect any signs of life in scenes familiar from the deadly earthquakes that have hit Italy in the last few years.
“We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble,” said Emanuele Giffi, a fire service official. “We’re going to work round the clock until the last victim is found.”
As dusk fell, the emergency services installed large spotlights to illuminate the wreckage. “We’re trying to get two people out of a car. They’re still alive,” said a firefighter from Tuscany who stepped out of the rubble for a bottle of water and a brief reprieve from the sound of helicopter rotor blades, ambulance sirens, barking search dogs and humming generators.
The relatives of people feared to have died in the disaster gathered at a Red Cross tent for counselling. “They are simply waiting, so we are trying to give them the support they need,” said a psychologist.
At least 16 people were reported to be injured, 10 of them critically.
Survivors were winched to safety by helicopters and flown to hospitals, while four people were pulled alive from buried vehicles.
The 650ft-long section of the Morandi bridge collapsed during an intense thunderstorm which brought torrential rain.
“First the central pylon crumbled, then the whole thing came down,” said Davide Ricci, who was driving when the bridge came down. “The debris ... came to within 20 metres of my car.”
Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, said that the exact number of dead and injured had yet to be established. He said: “You can see there are very big portions of the bridge (that collapsed). We need to remove all of the rubble to ascertain that all of the people have been reached. Operations are ongoing to extract people imprisoned below parts of the bridge and twisted metal.”
The disaster happened as millions of Italians headed to the coast to celebrate today’s national holiday, known as Ferragosto, in what is traditionally the height of the summer tourist season.
Mr Salvini, the head of the hardright League party as well as interior minister, said those responsible for the collapse would be held to account.
He said he wanted the “names and surnames of those to blame because a tragedy like this in 2018 is not acceptable. They will have to pay, pay for everything, and pay a lot”.
The bridge, linking Genoa with the Italian Riviera and the south of France, spans an area of light industry as well as several railway lines. It underwent restructuring work two years ago.
The tragedy came just a week after a tanker carrying liquid gas was involved in an accident and exploded on a motorway near Bologna in northern Italy, killing one person and injuring dozens.
‘I’m alive by a miracle. I was three, maybe four metres from the abyss. People got out of the cars and ran’