22 dead after Genoa bridge collapses in storm
AT least 22 people have died and eight others were injured after a bridge on a main road linking Italy with France collapsed during a storm in Genoa.
Around 20 vehicles plunged nearly 150ft into a heap of rubble after a huge section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed over an industrial zone in the port city, sending tonnes of twisted steel and concrete debris onto warehouses below.
Firefighter Amalia Tedeschi told RAI state TV that some 20 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were caught up after a stretch of the bridge measuring around 260ft fell.
She said two people had been pulled alive from vehicles in the rubble and transported to hospital by helicopter.
Edoardo Rixi, a transport official, told Sky TV that 22 people were dead and eight others were hurt.
Video captured the sound of a man screaming: “Oh God! Oh, God!” Other images showed a green truck which stopped just short of the gaping hole in the bridge, and the tyres of a tractor among the rubble.
Firefighters said they were worried about gas pipes exploding in the area as a result of the collapse.
The ANSA news agency said authorities suspected a structural weakness had caused the collapse.
Italy’s transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, called the collapse “an enormous tragedy”.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will travel to Genoa later.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said some 200 firefighters were responding to the accident.