MILAN — A 51-year-old highway bridge in the Italian port city of Genoa collapsed in a driving rain Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel. Earlier Tuesday, Italian fire service officials told Italy's ANSA news agency that at least 35 people had been killed.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte called it "an immense tragedy ... inconceivable in a modern system like ours, a modern country."
The disaster, on a major interchange connecting Genoa and other northern cities with beaches in eastern Liguria into France, focused attention on Italy's aging infrastructure, particularly its concrete bridges and viaducts built in the postwar boom of the 1950s and 1960s.
What caused the Morandi Bridge to fall remained unknown, and prosecutors said they were opening an investigation but had not identified any targets. Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said the collapse was "unacceptable" and that if negligence played a role "whoever made a mistake must pay."
Early speculation focused on the structural weakness of the span. Witnesses reported hearing a roar as the 45-meter, nearly 150-foot, bridge collapsed in a torrential rain during midday traffic on the eve of a major holiday that sees most Italians abandoning cities for beaches and mountains.
One unidentified woman who was standing below told RAI state TV that it crumbled as if it were a mound of baking flour. Video of the collapse, showing a misty scene of crumbled concrete, captured a man screaming: "Oh, God! Oh, God!"
Civil Protection authorities said at least 30 cars and three heavy vehicles were on the 80-meter, 260-foot. section of the span that collapsed in the industrial area of warehouses.
There was an immense gap where the bridge used to be, and one heart-stopping image showed a green truck halted on the rain-slickened roadway just short of the edge.
A man who was standing under the bridge in front of his truck at the time of the collapse called it "a miracle" that he survived. The middle-aged man, who did not give his name, said the shockwave sent him flying over 10 meters, 33 feet, into a wall, injuring his right shoulder and hip.
"I was in front of the truck and flew away, like everything else. Yes, I think it's a miracle. I don't know what to say. I'm out of words," he said, walking away from the site.
More than 300 rescue workers and canine crews were on the scene. They used heavy equipment and dogs to search for survivors in the rubble. At least four people were pulled alive from vehicles under the bridge, ANSA reported.
"Operations are ongoing to extract people imprisoned below parts of the bridge and twisted metal," said Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency.
Police handout
Officials evacuated several hundred people living along the raised highway that traverses the city as a precaution. The effort would continue into the night.
"It is a bit like working on an earthquake," said firefighters spokesman Luca Cari. "The main difficulty is removing the rubble and safeguarding the rescue teams."
There was confusion over the death toll throughout the day, with different officials giving conflicting numbers.
Officials in the Liguria region said Tuesday night that 26 people had died, saying two more bodies had been found and one of the 16 injured had died in surgery. After visiting the scene, Conte told RAI state TV called the tragedy "a serious wound for Genoa, Liguria and Italy."
The Italian CNR civil engineering society said that structures dating from when the Morandi Bridge was built had surpassed their lifespan. It called for a "Marshall Plan" to repair or replace tens of thousands of bridges and viaducts built in the 1950s and 1960s. Updating and reinforcing the bridges would be more expensive than destroying and rebuilding them with technology that could last a century.
They cited previous accidents: a bridge that fell in April 2017 in the northern province of Cuneo, crushing a carabinieri police car after the officers and driver had barely managed to get away in time; and an overpass that in the northern city of Lecco that collapsed under exceptional weight, crushing a car and killing the driver.
The design of the bridge has been criticized in the past. Antonio Brencich, a professor specializing in reinforced concrete construction at the University of Genoa, called the span "a failure of engineering" in an interview in 2016.
"That bridge is wrong. Sooner or later it will have to be replaced. I do not know when. But there will be a time when the cost of maintenance will be higher than a replacement," he told Italian media Primocanale.
Other engineers said corrosion or weather conditions could have contributed.
"As this reinforced and pre-stressed concrete bridge has been there for 50 years, it is possible that corrosion of tendons or reinforcement may be a contributory factor," said Ian Firth, former president of The Institution of Structural Engineers, a London-based international network. He called the bridge "an unusual design."
Massimo Pinca / REUTERS
Mehdi Kashani, an associate professor in structural mechanics at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said maintenance issues and pressure from "dynamic loads," such as traffic and wind, could have resulted in "fatigue damage in bridge components."
Borrelli said highway engineers were checking other parts of the bridge and that some areas were evacuated as a precaution.
"You can see there are very big portions of the bridge (that collapsed). We need to remove all of the rubble to ascertain that all of the people have been reached," he said.
The transport minister, Toninelli, said the company that has the concession to operate that section of highway said its maintenance on the bridge was up to date and no work was being done at the time of the collapse. But he added that they were about to launch a 20 million euro ($22.7 million) bidding process for significant safety work on the bridge.
"There has not been sufficient maintenance and checks, and safety work for many bridges and viaducts and bridges in Italy constructed — almost all — during the 1960s," he said.
It was the second deadly disaster on an Italian highway in as many weeks.
On Aug. 6, a tanker truck carrying a highly flammable gas exploded after rear-ending a stopped truck and getting hit from behind near the northern city of Bologna. The accident killed one person, injured dozens and blew apart a section of a raised eight-lane highway.
Genoa, Italy (CNN) The sound of jackhammers reverberated through the night in this northern Italian city, where crews searched for survivors of a highway bridge collapse that left about two dozen people dead, officials said.
A major section of the bridge partially collapsed on Tuesday, sending vehicles hurtling toward the earth. Abandoned vehicles remain on the span, with one truck close to the edge. Some chunks of concrete are the height of a three-story building.
The search-and-rescue mission is expected to last for days, Emanuele Gissi, an engineer with the country's fire service, told state broadcaster RAI News 24. Gissi said several people remain missing.
Teams with rescue dogs are aiding the effort.
Angelo Borrelli, head of the Italian Civil Protection Agency, said about 30 vehicles and several heavy-duty trucks were on the affected section of the Morandi Bridge, which lies to the west of the port city of Genoa, when it gave way.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said 22 people are dead and another 16 people were injured, nine of them in serious condition. Separately, the office of the governor of the Liguria region said 26 people have died. Genoa officials declared two days of mourning.
According to police, violent storms were partly to blame for the disaster. Maintenance work also was underway at the time to consolidate parts of the bridge, according to motorway operator Autostrade. A bridge crane had been installed to allow the work to be carried out, the operator said in a statement
"The works and the status of the viaduct were subject to constant observation and supervision," the statement said. "The causes for the collapse will be the object of an in-depth analysis as soon as it will be possible to safely access the site."
Conte said authorities were working on the theory the collapse was due to a "structural failure."
The number of casualties is expected to grow as the rubble is removed, Borrelli said, but it is unlikely that anyone was underneath the bridge at the time of the collapse, he added.
Some 440 people have had to abandon their homes following the collapse of the bridge, the mayor of Genoa's office said in a statement. Eleven buildings had to be evacuated and the number of people and buildings evacuated could rise as risk assessments are ongoing.
Photos: A helicopter flies over the site of the Morandi Bridge collapse in Genoa, Italy, on Tuesday, August 14. Hide Caption 1 of 23 Photos: Emergency crews gather at the site of the bridge collapse. Hide Caption 2 of 23 Photos: A rescuer and a stretcher are lifted above the wreckage. Hide Caption 3 of 23 Photos: An injured man speaks to reporters near the bridge. Hide Caption 4 of 23 Photos: Two rescue helicopters land near the Morandi Bridge. Hide Caption 5 of 23 Photos: A truck is seen near the edge of a section of the bridge that collapsed. Hide Caption 6 of 23 Photos: Bystanders watch the rescue operation. Hide Caption 7 of 23 Photos: Police officers look on near the stricken bridge, Hide Caption 8 of 23 Photos: A truck is seen in the wreckage of the bridge. Hide Caption 9 of 23 Photos: A Red Cross first aid tent is set up at the disaster scene. Hide Caption 10 of 23 Photos: Rescues work among the twisted debris. Hide Caption 11 of 23 Photos: Vehicles line a part of the bridge that remains standing. Hide Caption 12 of 23 Photos: Rescuers work amid the rubble Tuesday. Hide Caption 13 of 23 Photos: The rubble from the collapsed portion of the bridge is seen from afar. Hide Caption 14 of 23 Photos: A large section of the bridge collapsed during a storm. Hide Caption 15 of 23 Photos: Emergency crews work amid the debris. Hide Caption 16 of 23 Photos: Concrete slabs crumpled on top of each other when the section of the bridge collapsed. Hide Caption 17 of 23 Photos: Onlookers view the collapsed bridge. Hide Caption 18 of 23 Photos: A rescue helicopter lands near the site of the collapse. Hide Caption 19 of 23 Photos: Emergency crews work at the scene. Hide Caption 20 of 23 Photos: A chunk of the collapsed bridge teeters atop the rubble. Hide Caption 21 of 23 Photos: Italian first responders work to locate victims. Hide Caption 22 of 23 Photos: An emergency services worker views the bridge debris. Hide Caption 23 of 23
'It was frightening'
The incident at the bridge, a concrete structure opened in 1968, occurred about noon (6 a.m. ET) Tuesday, Italian state police said.
The A10, which runs across the bridge, is a major highway for residents and tourists in Genoa, connecting the city with the nearby airport, and a key route along the Mediterranean, linking the Italian coast with French coastal cities to the west.
The disaster occurred during peak tourist season -- when many French tourists would have been using the highway -- and one day before a national public holiday when many Italians travel to coastal areas.
Davide Di Giorgio was filming the heavy rain from the window of his office in Genoa when he saw part of the bridge crash to the ground.
"As soon as I turned the camera on to record the rain, we heard a loud noise and the bridge collapsed," Di Giorgio said. "It took me three seconds to realize what happened."
"My colleagues and I were shaking. It was frightening," he added.
Eyewitness Davide Ricci told local newspaper Il Secolo XIX that he thought he saw lightning hit the bridge shortly before it crumbled. Flashes of lightning can also be seen in the footage shot by Di Giorgio.
"The debris from the collapsed (bridge) fell 20 meters from my car," Ricci said, adding that he was driving south along the nearby river road at the time. "The central pylon crumbled, then the rest came down."
Emergency services, including the fire department, police, ambulances and mountain rescue teams including sniffer dogs, soon arrived at the site. Several hours later, around 200 firefighters were still working at the scene, according to the Italian fire service
Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire service, told Italian news agency Rai that rescuers were searching for people underneath the rubble as if it were an earthquake.
Canine search-and-rescue units were deployed by the Italian Red Cross to look for victims beneath the debris, while other Red Cross teams were sent out in police boats to search for people potentially stranded in the estuary of the Polcevera River.
Giorgio Larosa posted a video on Instagram showing rescuers working in heavy rain to free people from crushed vehicles in a grassy area below the viaduct.
Later in the day, Giorgio Mascione posted a video on Twitter showing the large gap between the two remaining sections of the viaduct, and the piles of rubble beneath.
Questions raised about bridge
It is unclear why a section of the bridge collapsed. Also known as the Polcevera Viaduct, the Morandi Bridge was designed by Italian civil engineer Riccardo Morandi and completed in 1968. The cable-stayed bridge had a total length of 1.1 kilometers and is 100 meters tall at its highest point.
The collapse came after 15 to 20 minutes of torrential rain, thunder and lightning. An automated report from the weather station at the nearby Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport around the time of the incident recorded thunderstorms with winds gusting to 57 kph (35 mph).
Some local residents are also questioning whether the bridge was adequately maintained.
"It is too early to say what caused the tragic collapse, but as this reinforced and prestressed concrete bridge has been there for 50 years it is possible that corrosion of tendons or reinforcement may be a contributory factor," said Ian Firth, former president of the UK-based Institution of Structural Engineers, and a structural engineer specializing in bridges.
He added that there were "no obvious signs" as to what triggered the collapse at this time and that the storm and ongoing work on the bridge may or may not be relevant factors.
Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci said the bridge collapse was "not absolutely unexpected" but that he didn't know the exact reason. When asked if he knew what had caused the bridge to collapse or if he knew if the bridge was undergoing repair work, Bucci said he wasn't sure.
"It's not my job to [know] that," he said. "My job is to think about the future and work for the future of the city."
"My role as the mayor is to make sure we have the correct infrastructure for the city and make sure that from the government we get the right amount of money in order to be able to set up the new infrastructure as soon as possible," Bucci also said.
Demitrios Cotsovos, associate professor at the Institute of Infrastructure and Environment at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, also urged caution before drawing any conclusions.
Engineers should be looking at the impacts of aging on the structural integrity of bridges such as this as well as "the potential impact of the environment and extreme weather conditions."
"Potentially, there are lessons to be learned from such an event," Cotsovos said.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the city of Genoa is located in northern Italy.
Rescuers work through the night with sniffer dogs and heavy lifting equipment in scenes compared to an earthquake
Italian rescuers have searched through the night for any survivors from the motorway bridge collapse in Genoa that has now been confirmed to have killed 26 people.
Genoa bridge collapse – pictures from the scene Read more
Officials from the Liguria region said on Tuesday night two more bodies had been pulled from the rubble and one person had died during surgery, adding to the 23 deaths reported earlier. More than a dozen people have been injured, most of them seriously. Interior minister Matteo Salvini has said “about 30” people have died, and “many injured in a serious condition”.
One fire official, Emanuele Giffi, told AFP: “We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble.
“We’re going to work round the clock until the last victim is secured.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescuers inspect the rubble of the Morandi bridge. Photograph: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
In what witnesses described as an “apocalypse”, an 80-metre section of the Morandi bridge on the A10 motorway came down in an industrial area of the port city during a sudden and violent storm at about 11.30am on Tuesday. About 30 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were on the affected section when it fell 100 metres, mostly on to rail tracks, the fire service said.
Investigators are now looking at what could have caused such a catastrophic collapse, creating a scene rescuers compared to the aftermath of an earthquake. Sniffer dogs searched through the rubble, and heavy equipment was moved in to lift pieces of the bridge. Heavy rain also made conditions more challenging.
As cars and trucks tumbled off the bridge, truck driver Afifi Idriss just managed to come to a halt in time. “I saw the green lorry in front of me stop and then reverse so I stopped too, locked the truck and ran,” he told AFP.
The green truck was still on the bridge in the late evening, stopped just short of the now yawning gap.
'Unusual' span of collapsed Genoa bridge had seen frequent repair work Read more
Aerial footage showed that the falling structure narrowly missed houses and other buildings as it collapsed over a river.
The disaster occurred on a major artery to the Italian Riviera and to France’s southern coast. Traffic would have been heavier than usual as many Italians were travelling to beaches or mountains on the eve of a public holiday, Ferragosto.
“The scene is apocalyptic, like a bomb had hit the bridge,” Matteo Pucciarelli, a journalist for La Repubblica who lives in Genoa, told the Guardian. “There are about 200 rescuers working continuously. People are in shock, it’s a very important arterial road that connects Lombardy and Piedmont with Liguria.”
Play Video 0:52 Aerial footage shows scale of destruction after Genoa bridge collapse – video
Alberto Lercari, a bus driver, earlier told Corriere della Sera: “I saw people running towards me, barefoot and terrified. I heard a roar. People ran away coming towards me. It was horrible.”
Davide Ricci, who had been travelling south, told La Stampa: “The debris landed about 20 metres from my car. First the central pillar crumbled and then everything else came down.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A police official sifts through the wreckage. Photograph: Flavio Lo Scalzo/EPA
Matteo Pierami drove across the bridge with his wife and child, aged two months, almost an hour before it collapsed. The family had been making their way from Lucca, in Tuscany, to the Ligurian town of Imperia. A couple of friends and their baby had been travelling in another car.
“I’ve had some time to calm down and am now trying to understand what happened, but my wife and our friends are very shocked,” Pierami said.
“We didn’t hear or see anything, but after passing the bridge stopped at an Autogrill [roadside restaurant], and started to receive calls from family.”
Pierami, an engineer, had driven over the bridge many times before. “There was lots of traffic; there is always a lot of traffic there.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest How the bridge appeared before its collapse. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
The Italian transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, immediately blamed the collapse on poor infrastructure maintenance and pledged that those responsible “would pay”. The minister, from the Five Star Movement, was rebuked by the opposition for using “political propaganda” so soon after the tragedy.
Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister, arrived in Genoa on Tuesday night and was expected to be joined later by his deputy, Luigi Di Maio.
Conte said: “It’s too early to talk about the causes and hypothesis, but one thing is certain, a tragedy of this kind cannot be repeated.”
The president, Sergio Mattarella, expressed his condolences in a statement, while stressing that Italians should be guaranteed the right “to modern and efficient infrastructure that accompanies everyday life”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest General view of collapsed Morandi bridge in Genoa. Photograph: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters
“Now is the time for a common commitment towards dealing with the emergency, assisting the injured and supporting those hit by the pain,” he added. “Then a serious investigation into the cause of what happened must follow. No authority can evade an exercise of full responsibility.”
The Morandi bridge, which was inaugurated in 1967, is 90-metres high and just over 1km long. Restructuring work on the bridge was carried out in 2016. The highway operator said work to strengthen the road foundations of the bridge was being carried out at the time of the collapse, and the bridge was constantly monitored.
Andrea Montefusco, an engineering expert at Luiss University in Rome, said: “It’s difficult to make any serious hypothesis right now. Some people are saying maybe lightning could have struck a cable on the bridge, but at this moment it’s too early to say anything about the cause.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescuers among the rubble. Photograph: Luca Zennaro/EPA
Montefusco, who grew up in Genoa, added: “It [the bridge] was a sort of jewel in Italian engineering, because at that time it was built with new engineering techniques. I used to enjoy passing over the bridge as a child, it was a novelty.”
About 12 bridges and overpasses have collapsed in Italy since 2004, killing seven people between them. In early 2015 a €13m viaduct in Palermo collapsed within days of opening. Poor structural maintenance was identified as the cause in most of the cases.
GENOA, Italy — A bridge in the heart of Genoa collapsed on Tuesday, killing 26 people as dozens of vehicles and tons of concrete and steel plunged onto city streets below in a disaster that prompted an emergency review of Italy’s aging infrastructure.
Adriano Scimpioni said he had just finished his shift at the city’s garbage collection company when “I heard something like an explosion and a screech of iron, and in a second we were all covered by a cloud of dust.”
Mr. Scimpioni went outside, and with his smartphone he started broadcasting the scene on Facebook.
“I immediately thought of the victims; I held my tears, with difficulty,” he said. “We were impotent, we didn’t have the means to help those who remained underneath.” He said two of his colleagues had been killed.
