Fury at mass funeral for victims of Genoa tragedy
SOBBING relatives grieved at a state funeral for 18 victims of the Genoa bridge disaster yesterday – with mourners demanding to know how the tragedy was allowed to happen. Italy’s former leader Maurizio Martina – whose Democratic Party was in charge until last year – was jeered when he arrived at the ceremony in Genoa. Around 3,000 people attended the service as the death toll rose to 42 with the discovery of a couple from Turin and their nine-year-old daughter in a crushed car under a slab of concrete. Genoa’s archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, who conducted the ceremony, said the disaster was ‘a gash in the heart’ of the city.
Vehicles plunged 150ft when part of the motorway bridge which had been riddled with structural problems collapsed on Tuesday.
Among the mourners was Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella. But some of the bereaved who blame the Italian authorities for the tragedy stayed away. Nunzia Eposito, whose son Gerardo, 26, died with three friends, said: ‘The parade of politicians is shameful.’