‘We are not going to stop searching’ – firefighters

HOPES were fading last night of finding any more survivors in the tangled wreckage of the collapsed motorway bridge. Search and rescue operations continued even though firefighters and police were not hearing any cries for help from within the smashed concrete slabs, twisted steel and crushed cars. “We are no longer hearing any audible signs of life, but we are not going to stop searching,” Luciano Roncalli, a fire service officer, said. “Due to the huge slabs of cement there is still a chance of surviving in a big void inside the rubble, so just because we cannot hear anything doesn’t mean there is no hope.”

As Italians asked how such a crucial structure could simply disintegrate without warning, details emerged of the people who lost their lives in the disaster.

Among the victims were a young Italian couple and their seven-year-old son. Roberto Robbiano, his wife Ersilia Piccinino and their son Samuele all died when their car plummeted 150ft to the ground after the 260ft section of the Morandi bridge suddenly collapsed during a thunderstorm on Tuesday.

The family were heading off on holiday to Sardinia when the bridge collapsed. Firefighters found Samuele’s favourite football, decorated with images of Spiderman, inside the crushed remains of their car, along with a bucket, a spade and a beach umbrella.

The victims also included Stella Boccia (24), from Tuscany, and her boyfriend Carlos Jesus Truillo (23), originally from the Dominican Republic. “A piece of our hearts lies beneath the rubble of the bridge in Genoa,” Ms Boccia’s parents wrote on Facebook.

The disaster claimed the lives of another couple – Marta Danisi (29), a nurse, and Alberto Fanfani (32), an anaesthetist from Florence. They were due to get married next year.

The dead also included Luigi Matti Altadonna (35), who was married with four children. (© Daily Telegraph, London)