Dozens feared dead as Italian motorway bridge collapses in storm
● Vehicles plunge 45m into pile of rubble as section gives way in storm
People had to be pulled from the rubble after a bridge collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa during a violent storm yesterday. At least 26 people have died, but the death toll is expected to rise further. Up to 35 cars and at least three trucks were on the 80 metre section of the bridge that collapsed.
A bridge on a main highway in the Italian port city of Genoa has collapsed during a sudden, violent storm, sending vehicles plunging 45 metres into a heap of rubble below.
At least 26 people were killed and 16 seriously injured, with the number of casualties expected to rise.
The Morandi Bridge, which linked Italy with France, collapsed just before midday yesterday over an industrial zone.
Firefighter Amalia Tedeschi said about 20 vehicles, including cars and lorries, had been involved in the collapse of an 80 metre stretch of the bridge. She said two people had been pulled alive from vehicles in the rubble, which fell into an industrial area below the bridge. Officials said they were being transported by helicopter to a hospital.
All the victims appeared to all have been in vehicles that plunged from the bridge.
Firefighters said they were worried about gas mains exploding in the area from the collapse. The structure collapsed around 11:30am local time (9:30am GMT) during heavy rain.
Eyewitness Pietro M all’asa said: “It was just after 11:30 when we saw lightning strike the bridge and we saw the bridge going down.”
Video captured the sound of a man screaming “Oh God, oh God”. Other images showed a green lorry that had stopped just short of the gaping hole in the bridge and the tyres of a tractor trailer in the rubble.
Authorities suspect a structural weakness caused the collapse.
One image posted by the regional emergency services showed a lorry perched at the end of the surviving bridge section immediately before the drop.
Italy’s transport minister Danilo Toninelli called the collapse “an enormous tragedy” and “unacceptable”. He said if negligence had played a role “whoever made a mistake must pay”. Mr Toninelli said the company that had the concession to operate the section of highway, including the bridge, said no maintenance work was under way at the time of the collapse.
Maintenance work was said to be up to date. But Mr Toninelli said they were about to launch a €20 million (£18m) bidding process for significant safety work on the bridge.
Interior minister Matteo Salvini said about 200 firefighters were responding to the accident. “We are following minute by minute the situation of the bridge collapse in Genoa,” he said on Twitter.
The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France, as well as northern cities like Milan to the beaches of Liguria.
The disaster came on the eve of a major Italian summer holiday today called Ferragosto, which means traffic was heavier than usual as Italians travelled to beaches or mountains.
The Morandi Bridge is a main thoroughfare connecting the A10 highway that goes toward France and the A7 highway that continues north toward Milan.
Inaugurated in 1967, it is 90 metres high and just over 0.6 of a mile long. The longest section between supports measures 200 metres.
The CNR civil engineering society is calling for a “Marshall Plan” to repair or replace tens of thousands of bridges in Italy that have surpassed their lifespans, having been built in the 1950s and 1960s with reinforced concrete.
The firm said in a statement the bridges were built with the best-known technology of the time, but their working lifespan was 50 years. It added in many cases, the cost to update and reinforce the bridges is more than it would cost to destroy and rebuild them.
CNR called for a major program to replace most of the bridges with new ones that would have a lifespan of 100 years.
French President, Emmanuel Macron has offered Italy his country’s help following the bridge’s collapse.
In French and Italian, Mr Macron wrote on Twitter: “Our thoughts go to the victims, their relatives and all the Italian people. France stands by Italy in that tragedy.”
“Our thoughts go to the victims, their relatives and all the Italian people. France stands by Italy in that tragedy” EMMANUEL MACRON French President