At least 35 people were killed when a motorway bridge collapsed in torrential rains this morning over buildings in the northern Italian port city of Genoa, Italian media has cited fire brigade sources as saying.
A 80-metre section of the bridge, including one set of the supports that tower above it, crashed down in the rain onto the roof of a factory and other buildings, crushing at least one truck and plunging huge slabs of concrete into the river below.
"It's not acceptable that such an important bridge... was not built to avoid this kind of collapse," Deputy Transport Minister Edoardo Rixi said on SkyNews24, speaking from Genoa.
Helicopter footage on social media showed trucks and cars stranded on either side of the 50-metre high collapsed section of the Morandi Bridge, which was built on the A10 toll motorway in the 1960s. One truck was shown just metres away from the broken end of the bridge.
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Restructuring work on the 1.2km-long bridge, a major artery to the Italian Riviera and to France's southern coast, was carried out in 2016.
The highway operator said work to shore up its foundation was being carried out at the time of the collapse, adding that the bridge was constantly monitored.
A witness told Sky Italia television he saw "eight or nine" vehicles on the bridge when it collapsed in what he said was an "apocalyptic scene".
Some 200 firefighters were on the scene, the fire service said, and Italian news agency ANSA said two survivors had been pulled out of the rubble under the collapse.
Aerial footage shows collapsed bridge in Genoa | https://t.co/TZQOSzj2iq pic.twitter.com/3QmBMSLD4i
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Police footage showed firefighters working to clear debris around a crushed truck, while other firefighters nearby scaled broken slabs of the collapsed bridge support.
Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli told Italian state television the disaster showed the dilapidated state of Italy's infrastructure and a lack of maintenance, adding that "those responsible will have to pay".
Train services around Genoa have been halted.
The office of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he was heading to Genoa this evening and would remain there tomorrow. Defence minister Elisabetta Trenta said the army was ready to offer manpower and vehicles to help with the rescue operations.
Irish woman crossed bridge with family just hours before collapse
An Irish woman has spoken of her shock at hearing of the collapse just hours after she and her family crossed the bridge.
Speaking on RTÉ News at One, Jean Androne said she was holidays in Genoa visiting relatives of her husband who is from the region.
She was travelling with him and her youngest child when she crossed the bridge this morning.
"My husband and my youngest child were in the car ... my 11-year-old ... taking the hire car back to the airport ... and it's a journey we do quite regularly," she said.
"We're all incredibly shaken by the news ... really shocked. It's the closest we've ever been to something so tragic."
Mrs Androne said there was torrential rain in the region last night and they had heard reports that weather may have played a part in the collapse.
"My husband just spoke to his cousin who had traveled underneath and he said a witness said lightning had struck the bridge and then the rest followed."
She said she and her husband are trying to find out if any of his relatives may have been caught up in the disaster.
