REPORTS have indicated that 35 people have died following the collapse of part of a motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy.

The 1km-long Morandi Bridge, part of the A10 motorway, collapsed just before noon during adverse weather.

The Italian news agency ANSA reports that the death toll is up to 35.

The latest update from state police is that at least 20 people have dead with 14 wounded, although they are unable to confirm if that is the total number of fatalities.

Around 200 firefighters are currently at the scene as rescue efforts continue.

Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli tweeted to say he was following the developments but feared it would develop into an ‘immense tragedy’.

The Dipartimento della Protezione Civile (Civil Protection Department) a national body that deals with exceptional events, has despatched a team to Genoa.

The bridge passes over the Polcevera River and is located between the districts of Sampierdarena and Cornigliano.

Restructuring work on the bridge, which was constructed in the 1960s, was carried out in 2016. </s> Video

Demolition experts have blown up what remains of the Morandi bridge in the Italian city of Genoa nearly a year after the structure collapsed.

Thousands of people were evacuated ahead of explosions to bring down two large towers consisting of about 4,500 tonnes of concrete and steel.

Forty-three people were killed when part of the bridge, and cars travelling along it, fell 45m (148ft) last August.

Read more: Genoa bridge towers blown up as thousands evacuated </s> Part of a motorway viaduct in the northwestern Italian city of Genoa collapsed on Tuesday, the local fire brigade said, adding that several cars could have been involved in the accident.

Italian news agency Adnkronos, citing local ambulance services, reported that there were "dozens of dead" in the collapse.

What we know so far:
• Some 200 meters (656 feet) of road from Morandi Bridge collapsed onto an industrial zone in the port city at around 11:30 a.m. local time (0930 UTC).
• Rescue operations are underway to remove the rubble.
• Local police said the bridge collapsed during a severe downpour and violent storm.
• A bridge was constructed in 1960s as part of the A10 toll motorway. Restructuring was carried out in 2016.
• Authorities had no information regarding the number of potential victims.

Italy's Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said the bridge collapse looked like an "immense tragedy."

Franco Nativo, a local journalist on the scene, told Italian broadcaster SkyTG24 that he could see "at least eight to nine" vehicles crushed under the rubble from the bridge. "It is an apocalyptic scene," Nativo added. </s> Rescuers at work amid the rubble after a highway bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy. A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa on Tuesday. Several people have died, rescue sources said. Several vehicles were crushed under the rubble with dead people inside, the sources said.

A huge stretch of a highway bridge collapsed during a sudden storm in northwestern Italy on Tuesday, crushing vehicles. Authorities said that about 10 vehicles were involved.

The section of the Morandi bridge in the port city of Genoa collapsed amid torrential rain, Italy’s Ansa news agency reported. Italian media reported that deaths occurred, but a local police officer said the number of victims wasn't known.

Private broadcaster Sky TG24 reported that the 200-meter (660-foot) section fell over an industrial zone. Firefighters told The Associated Press there are concerns about gas lines.

Video captured the sound of a man screaming: "Oh god, oh, god." Other images showed a green truck that had stopped on the bridge yards short of a gaping hole.

At least two people were pulled out of the rubble alive and have been taken to the hospital, Ansa reported.

The 330-foot tall bridge was built in the 1960s, the BBC reported. It runs over homes, shopping centers, factories, a railway line and a river, according to Ansa. </s> GENOA, Italy >> The death toll from the collapse of a highway bridge in the Italian city of Genoa that is already confirmed to have claimed at least 38 lives will certainly rise, a senior official said Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the toll will increase, that’s inevitable” as rescuers continued to search tons of rubble for the missing, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told reporters.

On Wednesday, Premier Giuseppe Conte told reporters that 39 people had died.

But on Thursday, the Genoa’s prefect office, which reports to the interior ministry lowered the number of confirmed dead to 38. Prefect Office official Raffaella Corsaro attributed the lowered number to a “misunderstanding” about information supplied by ambulance dispatchers.

Corsaro said that there are 15 injured persons. Doctors have said one of the injured is in coma with severe cranial injuries.

Rescuers continued to comb through tons of jagged steel, concrete and dozens of vehicles that plunged as much as 150 feet into a dry river bed on Tuesday, the eve of Italy’s main summer holiday.

Salvini declined to cite a number of the missing, saying that would be “supposition,” but separately Genoa Chief Prosecutor Francesco Cozzi told reporters there could be between 10 and 20 people still unaccounted for.

“The search and rescue operations will continue until we find all those people that are listed as missing,” Sonia Noci, a spokeswoman for Genoa firefighters, told The Associated Press.

Italy is planning a state funeral for the dead in the port city Saturday, which will be marked as a day of national mourning. The service will be held in a pavilion on the industrial city’s fair grounds and led by Genoa’s archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has said the collapse is an “absurd” catastrophe that has stricken the entire nation.

At least six of the dead are foreigners — four French citizens and two Albanians.

Authorities say they don’t know how many vehicles were on the bridge when it collapsed in a violent rain storm.

Cozzi has said the investigation of the cause is focusing on possible inadequate maintenance of the 1967 Morandi Bridge or possible design flaws.

In an interview on SkyTG24 TV Thursday, Cozzi said that there was a video of the collapse. Outside experts will study the video to see if it might help determine the cause.

Since the cause is yet to be ascertained, there are “no suspects” at this point, the prosecutor said. But he said prosecutors are considering possible eventual charges that include multiple manslaughter.

Premier Giuseppe Conte says his government won’t wait until prosecutors finish investigating the collapse to withdraw the concession from the main private company that maintains Italy’s highways, Atlantia.

The bridge links two heavily travelled highways, one leading to France, the other to Milan.

A $22.7 million project to upgrade the bridge’s safety had already been approved, with public bids to be submitted by September. According to business daily Il Sole, improvement work would have involved two weight-bearing columns that support the bridge — including one that collapsed Tuesday.

The bridge, considered innovative when it opened in 1967 for its use of concrete around its cables, was long due for an upgrade, especially since it carried more traffic than its designers had envisioned. Some architects have said the choice of encasing its cables in reinforced concrete was risky since it’s harder to detect corrosion of the metal cables inside.

Frances D’Emilio reported from Rome. Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report. </s> Genoa bridge collapse: Death toll rises to 43 as thousands attend state funeral for victims

Italy has mourned the victims of the collapse of a motorway bridge in the northern city of Genoa with a state funeral as rescue workers reportedly find four more bodies and a man dies in hospital, bringing the death toll to 43.

On Tuesday a 200-metre section of the Morandi bridge in Genoa gave way in busy lunchtime traffic, sending cars plummeting 45 metres into a dry river bed and near several apartment buildings.

The mass for 19 of the victims was held at the Exhibition and Trade Centre of the northern port city and led by the city's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco.

"The initial disbelief and then the growing dimension of the catastrophe, the general bewilderment, the tumult of emotions, the pressing 'whys?' touched us yet again and in a brutal way showed the inexorable fragility of the human condition," Cardinal Bagnasco said.

He encouraged citizens to show solidarity so "we can build new bridges to walk together" and rise above the tragedy.

Cardinal Bagnasco told the mourners that Pope Francis had called him Friday evening to express closeness to all those suffering.

Among the coffins were those of two young Albanian Muslim men who lived and worked in Italy.

Their remains were blessed at the end of the Catholic service by a Genoa imam, who drew applause when he prayed for God to "protect Italy and all Italians".

But some of the victims' families boycotted the event and held their own private services, as a protest against the state, seen as negligent in its role of overseeing safety on the privately run bridge.

The Government had declared Saturday a national day of mourning and declared a state of emergency for Genoa, one of Italy's largest ports.

Hours before the funeral, the toll from Tuesday's bridge collapse rose unofficially to 43, with the reported discovery of four more bodies amid the tons of broken concrete.

The bodies of an Italian couple and their 9-year-old daughter were found in their smashed car under a big block of concrete, Italian news agency ANSA said.

Relatives said the family from northern Italy had been driving to catch a ferry for the island of Elba for their vacation.

Firefighter Stefano Zanut told Sky TG24 TV the last body pulled out of the wreckage was that of a young Italian man, an employee of Genoa's trash company, working under the bridge when it collapsed.

The man's mother had refused to leave a tent set up a few hundred yards away from the rubble until his body was found.

Italian RAI state radio said it is believed he is the last missing person after a German man called officials to say he was not involved in the disaster.

A Genoa hospital said 36-year-old Romanian truck driver Marian Rosca had succumbed to his severe cranial and chest injuries and died.

Doctors had described him as the most severely injured of the survivors, while authorities said several other bridge survivors are still hospitalised.



Before the ceremony began, in a pavilion on Genoa's fairgrounds, President Sergio Mattarella offered quiet words of comfort for families of the victims before taking his place with other Italian leaders, including Premier Giuseppe Conte and the transportation and infrastructure minister in the cavernous pavilion hall.

Mr Mattarella did not speak at the funeral, held on a national day of mourning, but after the ceremony ended he told reporters the bridge collapse "is an unacceptable tragedy".

He called the funeral "a moment of grief shared grief by all of Italy united in this state of mind".

He then demanded that "responsibility be ascertained with rigor" for the collapse of the bridge, which linked two major highways, one leading to Milan and the other toward France.

Members of the fire brigade, rescue teams and the police force were welcomed with applause as they entered the exhibition centre, where the caskets, including a small white one for a child, were lined up in front of a temporary altar.

Players of the city's two soccer teams, Genoa and Sampdoria, sat among the crowd, having refused to play matches this weekend in sign of respect.

Relatives of the dead stood beside the coffins, adorned with white and yellow roses, some with their hands on the caskets.

'You apologise if you feel you are responsible'

The disaster has dragged toll-road operator Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI), controlled by infrastructure group Atlantia , into a political storm.

Speaking after the funeral, top Autostrade executives voiced profound sadness for the victims and said the company would set up a fund of about $780 million for their families.

Chief executive Giovanni Castellucci said the company has a plan to demolish what is left of the largely concrete bridge and build a "less imposing" steel one.

He said the process will take about eight months to complete.

When asked if he would issue an unreserved apology, Mr Castellucci stopped short of an apology:

Mr Castellucci added that he would wait for official investigators to determine responsibility for the collapse, but stated that all the bridges managed by the firm are safe. </s> GENOA, Italy (AP) — As more bodies were pulled Wednesday from a mountain of jagged concrete and twisted steel left by a highway bridge collapse that killed 39, prosecutors focused on possible design flaws and past maintenance of the heavily used span, and politicians squabbled over blame.

Motorists, meanwhile, recounted miraculous escapes and the horror of seeing others plunge over the edge.

As a second night descended on the site where part of the Morandi Bridge plunged some 45 meters (150 feet), Interior Minister Matteo Salvini declined to say how many people might still be buried in the debris where about 1,000 rescue workers searched for victims.

The collapse occurred about midday Tuesday, the eve of Italy’s biggest summer holiday, when traffic was particularly busy on the 51-year-old span that links two highways — one leading to France, the other to Milan — from this northwestern port city.

Salvini declined to say how many people are still missing, and he added that trying to locate them was particularly difficult, due to the holiday.

“It’s not easy to distinguish between who doesn’t respond because they are on the other side of the world and turned off their phone to relax” on vacation, and “who’s not responding because they are under the rubble,” he said.

He said he hoped the death toll would not rise.

“Miracles are still possible,” Salvini said.

Authorities urged the quick removal of tons of debris from a dry river bed so that the rubble doesn’t create a makeshift dam if heavy rains fall in the flood-prone city on the Mediterranean.

Debris also must be cleared from railroad tracks, a vital link especially now that Genoa is largely cut in half by the loss of such a key artery, Premier Giuseppe Conte said.

Authorities worried about the stability of remaining large sections of the bridge, prompting a wider evacuation order and forcing about 630 people from nearby apartments, some practically in the shadow of the elevated highway. Firefighters went inside some of the vacated apartments briefly to retrieve documents and, in at least one home, pet cats.

Building a new bridge could require razing the evacuated buildings, said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli.

After leading an emergency Cabinet meeting in Genoa, Conte said there were 39 confirmed dead and 16 injured, including nine in serious condition. Three children were among those killed, Salvini said.

The dead included four French citizens traveling to a music festival and two Albanians.

Genoa Prosecutor Francesco Cozzi told reporters the investigation into the collapse was focused on human causes, specifically any possible design flaws in the bridge’s construction or any inadequate maintenance.

He said he didn’t know who might be responsible, but added: “It wasn’t an accident.”

Asked if authorities had any warning that the bridge could be dangerous, Cozzi indicated that no serious safety concerns had reached his office before the collapse.

Otherwise, “none of us would have driven over that highway 20 times a month, as we do,” he said.

A 20 million-euro ($22.7 million) project to upgrade the bridge’s safety had already been approved, with public bids to be submitted by September. According to business daily Il Sole, improvement work would have involved two weight-bearing columns that support the bridge — including one that collapsed Tuesday.

The bridge, considered innovative when it opened in 1967 for its use of concrete around its cables, was long due for an upgrade, especially since it was more heavily trafficked than its designers had envisioned.

One expert, Antonio Brencich at the University of Genoa, had previously called the bridge “a failure of engineering.” Other engineers, noting its age, said corrosion and decades of wear-and-tear from weather also could have been factors in the collapse.

Conte said the government wouldn’t wait until the investigation was completed to revoke the concession of a private company, Autostrade Per L’Italia, that operates many of the nation’s toll highways. The next company would be held to “more stringent” rules for maintenance.

Residents near the bridge told RAI state TV they would hear maintenance work being done almost nightly.

Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, of the anti-business 5-Star Movement, alleged Autostrade’s holding company took profits “instead of investing money for maintenance.”

Toninelli, the transportation and infrastructure minister and another populist 5-Star leader, said his ministry had started procedures so Autostrade could be fined up to 150 million euros ($170 million).

Still-dazed and shaken survivors recounted their close brush with death when the collapse of the 80-meter (260-foot) section of the span sent more than 30 cars and three trucks tumbling.

A French lawyer who was in a car with her husband and 3-year-old son said they were just coming onto the bridge when “we saw the pylon go completely to the right, and we realized what was happening.”

The woman, who was identified only as Leonine, told broadcaster Francetvinfo that they tried to make a U-turn but were blocked by traffic.

“We saw a man running and making a sign to everyone to leave,” she said. “We opened our doors, took our son out of his car seat,” and then ran to a nearby tunnel.

One of the widely circulated images of the disaster was a green truck poised on the edge of the span.

A truck driver identified only as Idris who was behind that vehicle said it was saved only because of a motorist who tried to pass it moments earlier. The driver of the green truck apparently had to hit his brakes because of the passing car and was able to stop in time, he added.

“That truck driver is the luckiest in the world,” Idris told Sky TG24. “He should have fallen in. … He braked right where the bridge was broken.”

The passing car plunged into the chasm, he added.

Idris also credited police for hustling 150-200 people off the bridge to the tunnel, then risking their own lives by going back onto the span to bring some of the vehicles to safety.

D’Emilio reported from Rome and Barry from Milan. Simone Somekh in Rome and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Rome [Italy], June 29 (ANI): The two remaining towers of Morandi Bridge in central Genoa were blown up in a controlled explosion on Friday, nearly a year after the structure collapsed in a disaster killing 43 people.

Demolition experts brought down the two remaining towers of the highway bridge in dramatic fashion just after 9:30 a.m. (local time), preparing for reconstruction of the grim structure, CNN reported.

Authorities here at the dawn on Friday, evacuated around 3,500 residents in the area to avoid potential contamination, The New York Times reported.

"To my knowledge, it is the first time that this kind of work has been done in so little time and in a city centre, at least in Italy," said Vittorio Omini, a demolition expert.

The lethal collapse last year in August became subject of a criminal inquiry. Nearly 600 people, residing close to the bridge, lost their homes in the collapse and were relocated with the financial support of 'Autostrade per l'Italia' (Highways for Italy), the private company that operated the bridge.

"We couldn't wait for this day to come," said Yosanda Lala, a co-owner of a pizzeria near the so-called red zone, the blocks of apartment buildings adjacent to the bridge, many of which have been partly demolished.

He said, "We can't even deliver our pizza to the customers on the other side of the river," adding, "It takes over an hour to get there."

Residents and shopkeepers told The New York Times that the demolition would be just the first step in a long process of returning to normalcy.

Friday's explosion was attended by Italy's Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini. Residents and shopkeepers said the demolition would be just the first step in a long process of returning to normalcy.

Built in the 1960s, the Morandi Bridge was a vital link of the A10 highway that connects northwestern Italy to France, across the Polcevera river in central Genoa. It was one of the busiest bridges in the country, carrying freight and tourists to and from the port city. (ANI) </s> A bridge on a main highway between Italy and France collapsed Tuesday in the Italian city of Genoa during a sudden, violent storm, sending vehicles plunging 80 meters (262 feet) into a heap of rubble below.Amalia Tedeschi, a firefighter, told RAI state TV that some 20 vehicles had been involved in the collapse. She said two people had been pulled alive from vehicles in the rubble that fell into an industrial area below the bridge and were being transported by helicopter to a hospital.Italian news agency ANSA citing Interior Ministry said 20 people have died and 13 are injured.The private broadcaster Sky TG24 said a 200-meter (over 650-foot) section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed over an industrial zone. Firefighters told The Associated Press they were worried about gas lines exploding in the area from the collapse.Photos published by ANSA on its website showed a huge gulf between two sections of the bridge.Video captured the sound of a man screaming: "Oh God! Oh, God!" Other images showed a green truck that had stopped just short of the gaping hole in the bridge. The tires of a tractor trailor could be seen in the rubble.Italy's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, called the collapse "an enormous tragedy."Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said some 200 firefighters were responding to the accident."We are following minute by minute the situation of the bridge collapse in Genoa," Salvini said on Twitter.The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France and other vacation resorts on the eve of a major Italian holiday on Wednesday, Ferragosto. Traffic would have been heavier than usual as many Italians traveled 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 meters (295 feet) high, just over a kilometer (.6 miles) long, with the longest section between supports measuring 200 meters (over 650 feet).ANSA said authorities suspected that a structural weakness caused the collapse on Tuesday.
The death toll from the Ponte Morandi collapse in Genoa, Italy, rises to 43.