Genoa (CNN) A major section of a highway bridge in northern Italy partially collapsed on Tuesday, sending vehicles hurtling toward the earth and leaving about two dozen people dead, officials said.
Angelo Borrelli, head of the Italian Civil Protection Agency, said around 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.
According to police, violent storms were partly to blame for the disaster. Maintenance work was also 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.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that 22 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 that 26 people have died.
In addition, 440 people have had to abandon their homes following the collapse of the bridge, the Mayor of Genoa's office said in a statement on Tuesday. The statement adds that 11 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 around 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 Tuesday, 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.
Italian Prime Minister visits Genoa
Writing on Twitter shortly after the collapse, Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli described the incident as "an immense tragedy" and said the government was in close contact with Autostrade, the motorway operator.
The Prime Minister arrived in Genoa late Tuesday afternoon and planned to oversee the continuing rescue operation, according to a statement provided by his office.
Several Cabinet ministers, including Deputy Prime Ministers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, were also traveling to Genoa on Tuesday or planning to arrive Wednesday.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, sent his support via Twitter. "My heart and thoughts are in #Genoa with all the victims, their families and loved ones," he wrote
Italian President Sergio Mattarella issued a statement calling for a full examination of what caused the collapse.
"It is a catastrophe that has struck Genoa and Italy as a whole," Mattarella said. "A terrible and absurd disgrace has been brought down upon unarmed people and families."
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.
MILAN -- A bridge on a main highway linking Italy with France collapsed Tuesday in the Italian port city of Genoa during a sudden, violent storm, sending vehicles plunging almost 300 feet into a heap of rubble below. Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci told Italy's Sky TG24 that more than 25 people were confirmed dead and 10 more rescued with injuries. Italian fire service officials told Italy's ANSA news agency that at least 35 people had been killed.
Officials have warned that the death toll will likely rise further as the rescue and recovery effort continues.
Amalia Tedeschi, a firefighter, told RAI state TV that some 20 vehicles, including cars and trucks, had been involved in the collapse of a stretch of bridge some 260 yards in length. She said two people had been pulled alive from vehicles in the rubble, which fell into an industrial area below the bridge. Officials said they were being transported by helicopter to a hospital.
Italian Red Cross
French news agency AFP said it was a portion of the five-decade old Morandi highway bridge that collapsed. CBS News' Anna Matranga reports there was maintenance work being performed on the bridge. Italian fire services said the bridge, in an industrial area in west Genoa, fell down at 5 a.m. Eastern time.
The private broadcaster Sky TG24 said a 200-yard section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed over an industrial zone, sending tons of twisted steel and concrete debris onto warehouses below. 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. Deputy Minister Rixi said it was "the biggest tragedy involving a bridge of this importance in Europe in the last decades."
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 and the tires of a tractor trailer in the rubble.
Police handout
ANSA said authorities suspected that a structural weakness had caused the collapse, but there was no immediate explanation by authorities for why they might have thought that or what had happened.
Italy's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, called the collapse "an enormous tragedy."
The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France, and northern cities like Milan to the beaches of Liguria. It came on the eve of a major Italian summer holiday on Wednesday called Ferragosto, which means traffic was heavier than usual as 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 295 feet high, just over half a mile long, with the longest section between supports measuring more than 200 yards.
It's too early to say what caused the deadly collapse of a highway bridge in the Italian city of Genoa, but corrosion or weather conditions could have been part of the cause, a structural engineer specializing in bridges told the Associated Press.
"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 Institution of Structural Engineers.
"The fact that there was reported to be a storm at the time may or may not be particularly relevant. In addition, ongoing work on the bridge may or may not be partly responsible for the collapse," he added.
Firth said the bridge is an unusual design but is similar to a larger bridge in Venezuela, and both were designed by Riccardo Morandi.
French President Emmanuel Macron offered Italy his country's help after the collapse, and said in both French and Italian on Twitter that: "Our thoughts go to the victims, their relatives and all the Italian people. France stands by Italy in that tragedy and is ready to provide all necessary support."
The collapse of the bridge comes eight days after another major accident on an Italian highway, one near the northern city of Bologna. In that case, a tanker truck carrying a highly flammable gas exploded after rear-ending a stopped truck on the road and getting hit from behind itself. The accident killed one person, injured dozens and blew apart a section of a raised eight-lane highway.
Section of motorway bridge comes down during storm in port city in northern Italy
Rescuers were continuing to work in extreme conditions late on Tuesday after a bridge collapsed in the northern Italian city of Genoa, killing at least 23 people and injuring 15.
Genoa bridge collapse – pictures from the scene Read more
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.
The Twitter account for the Liguria region said that of the 23 confirmed dead, 19 had been identified, and 15 people had been injured, the majority seriously.
Luigi D’Angelo, head of the emergency unit at the civil protection service, warned the death toll was likely to rise.He added that the cause of the collapse should be known within hours.
About 30 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were on the affected section of the bridge when it fell 100 metres, mostly on to rail tracks, the fire service said.
Rescuers compared the conditions to the aftermath of an earthquake, as sniffer dogs searched through the rubble and heavy equipment was moved in to lift pieces of the bridge. Heavy rain made conditions more challenging.
'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.”
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.”
Play Video 0:32 Aftermath of motorway bridge collapse in Genoa – video
Pierami, an engineer, had driven over the bridge many times before. “There was lots of traffic; there is always a lot of traffic there.”
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”.
“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.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescuers among the rubble. Photograph: Luca Zennaro/EPA
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.”
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.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Parts of the bridge can be seen collapsing
A motorway bridge has collapsed in the northwest Italian city of Genoa, killing 26 people and badly injuring 15, police told the BBC.
Dramatic video footage captured the moment of the disaster when one of the huge supporting towers crashed down during torrential rain.
Cars and trucks plummeted 45m (148ft) on to rail tracks, buildings and a river along with slabs of concrete.
Searches for people trapped in rubble are expected to go into the night.
Fears that other parts of the bridge might fall have prompted the evacuation of buildings in the area, a rescuer told Italy's Ansa news agency.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Injured people were winched to safety
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini promised that anyone found to be responsible for the bridge collapse would be held to account.
"I have crossed that bridge hundreds of times," he said. "Now, as an Italian citizen, I will do everything to get the names and surnames of the managers responsible, past and present, because it is unacceptable to die like that in Italy."
A representative of the motorway's operator, Autostrade, told Reuters news agency there had been "no reason to consider the bridge was dangerous".
Shares in Atlantia, Autostrade's parent company which runs much of the country's motorways, fell 6.3% after news of the collapse.
How did the structure collapse?
It fell around 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) during heavy rain. Police reported a violent cloudburst.
"We saw lightning strike the bridge," eyewitness Pietro M all'Asa was quoted as saying by Ansa. "And we saw the bridge going down."
Engineers say it is too early to determine the cause of the collapse but that lightning is unlikely to be the reason.
Image copyright AFP
Another witness, unnamed, recalled: "We heard an incredible roar and first we thought it was thunder very close by.
"We live about 5km [three miles] from the bridge but we heard a crazy bang... We were very scared... Traffic went completely haywire and the city was paralysed."
One image posted by the regional emergency services shows a truck perched at the end of the surviving bridge section immediately before the drop.
What do we know of the victims?
Earlier, fire brigade sources told Ansa unofficially that 35 people were dead and 12 missing.
A child is among the dead, said the head of the civil defence agency, Angelo Borrelli.
Between 30 and 35 cars and three heavy vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse, he said.
"We are continuing with the rescue operations because we think there are other people alive under the rubble," Genoa police spokesperson Alessandra Bucci told Reuters.
"We have extracted people from the rubble and now we are focusing on assisting the people, and later on we will understand what caused the collapse of the bridge."
The full horror of the collapse could be seen in aerial video of the scene.
Patrick Villardry, a French firefighter who came from Nice to help the rescue effort, told AFP news agency the task was huge.
"The first victims have been evacuated and now we have to search under the wreckage of buildings, but there are thousands of tonnes of concrete," he said.
Image copyright Reuters
How important is the bridge?
The Morandi Bridge, built in the 1960s, stands on the A10 toll motorway, which serves the Italian Riviera and southern coast of France.
The missing section was dozens of metres in length, and ran across the span of the Polcevera river.
The collapse of the bridge was an "incident of vast proportions on a vital arterial road, not just for Genoa, but for the whole country", said Mr Toti.
"The Morandi bridge connects three major ports in our country, used by tens, even hundreds of thousands of people. They depart from these ports on holiday. These docks receive most of our country's imported goods. It damages the very structure of the Italian logistics system. We are expecting a very fast response from the government."
Mr Borrelli said the authorities were trying to arrange help for those affected by the disaster, as well as setting up diversions for traffic.
"What we are carrying out at the moment is a search and rescue operation for the victims and the injured, to get the victims out and recover the injured," he said.
"Then we are obviously also trying to work out how to set up a viable route that is an alternative to the motorway, and also for entry and exit from the port."
Were there any concerns about the bridge?
"It's not acceptable that such an important bridge... was not built to avoid this kind of collapse," Mr Rixi was quoted as saying by Reuters.
However, Stefano Marigliani, the Autostrade official responsible for the Genoa area, told the agency that the bridge had been "constantly monitored and supervised well beyond what the law required".
The highway operator said work to shore up its foundation was being carried out at the time of the collapse.
Repair work on the bridge was carried out in 2016, Reuters reports. Major repairs also took place in the 1990s.
Image copyright EPA
A structural engineer who lectures at Genoa University, Antonio Brencich, warned in 2016 that there were problems with the bridge, Italian media report.
The bridge's designer, Riccardo Morandi (1902-1989) had miscalculated the "viscous deformation" - an ageing effect on reinforced concrete, Mr Brencich said.
"He was an engineer with great insight but lacking in practical calculations," the lecturer said.
Italy's recently installed government has pledged to increase public investment in infrastructure.
The country spent more than €14bn (£12.5bn; $16bn) on its roads in 2006 but that had dropped to less than €4bn by 2010, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The figures cover spending on new transport construction and the improvement of the existing networks.
Spending started to increase in 2013, when total spend was less than Spain, Germany, France and the UK.
How has the world reacted?
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted a message of sympathy to the people of Italy, writing in both Italian and French. He said France was ready to offer any necessary aid.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker voiced his "deepest sympathy and sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who have died, and to the Italian people".
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