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.
Genoa (CNN) A major section of a highway bridge in northern Italy partially collapsed on Tuesday, sending vehicles hurtling toward the earth and leaving 22 people dead, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte 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.
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.
Another 16 people were injured, nine of them in serious condition, Conte said. Conte's death toll was lower than previously feared and came hours after the office of the governor of the northwestern Liguria region tweeted that the death toll had climbed to 35.
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."
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.
A section of a towering highway bridge collapsed in Italy Tuesday, sending vehicles plunging nearly 300 feet to the ground and killing at least 22 people, officials said.
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The collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa occurred around midday during strong storms moving through the area of northwest Italy, according to authorities.
At least 30 vehicles were on the bridge in a port section of the city when the span gave way, Amalia Tedeschi, a firefighter, told the Italian news agency ANSA. Several people were pulled from the rubble alive and taken to a hospital by helicopter, Tedeschi added.
Reuters
Construction involving a crane was occurring on the bridge at the time of the collapse, but it was too early to pinpoint what caused the span to fail, Italian authorities said.
At least 22 people were killed, including a child, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said after touring the disaster site. Another 16 people were injured in the catastrophe, Conte said.
Earlier, Genoa Mayor Marco Bucci told reporters that at least 25 people were killed.
ABC NEWS
All the casualties appeared to have been in vehicles that plummeted from the bridge, Angelo Borelli, head of Italy's civil protection agency, said during a news conference. He added that the bridge fell on two warehouses but no one is believed to have been inside them because they were closed for the summer holiday.
Borelli said 30 to 35 vehicles, including three heavy trucks, were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
Conte described the collapse as "an immense tragedy."
Luca Zennaro/REX via Shutterstock
"It is shocking to see the twisted metal and the bridge collapsed with victims who were extracted," Conte told RAI state TV after flying over the collapsed bridge and visiting survivors at a hospital.
He said rescue workers managed to save several people who were in cars that fell nearly 150 feet "and are now alive and in the hospital."
Massimo Pinca/Reuters
Several witnesses posted videos of the collapse on social media. In one video, someone can be heard screaming, "Oh, God" and a flash could be seen as the concrete structure crumbled.
Witness Alessandro Megna told RAI state radio that he had been stuck in a traffic jam under the bridge when the collapse occurred.
"Suddenly the bridge came down with everything it was carrying. It was really an apocalyptic scene. I couldn't believe my eyes," Megna said.
Another witness, Davide Ricci, told reporters at the scene that he was lucky to be alive.
"The debris from the collapse came to within 20 meters [about 20 yards] of my car," said Ricci, who saw the bridge go down while he was driving. "First the central pylon crumbled, then the whole thing came down."
Andrea Leoni/AFP via Getty Images
The driver of a box truck slammed on his brakes as the bridge fell apart, stopping just before plummeting off the edge of the broken span, the general manager of the Basko supermarket chain for which he works told reporters.
Hours after the collapse, video showed the truck still perched just feet from where the bridge gave way.
The collapse happened on part of the viaduct on the A10 highway that crosses the Polcevera River, the country's national police, Polizia di Stato, said.
Witnesses said the bridge toppled after it was struck by lightning.
Polizia di Stato
Violento nubifragio #Genova #crollo parte del viadotto Polcevera-Morandi Km 0,200 su autostrada A10
Uscita obbligatoria Genova aeroporto direzione Ventimiglia
Uscita obbligatoria bivio A10 con A7 direzione Genova @StradeAnas @DPCgov @emergenzavvf @Viminale @ComunediGenova pic.twitter.com/7YJINjFWRX — Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) August 14, 2018
Luca Zennaro/ANSA via AP
The A10 highway, the main route between northern Italy and France, was closed in both directions as search-and-rescue teams looked for survivors.
Andrea Leoni/AFP via Getty Images
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said about 200 firefighters were on scene searching for survivors.
The Morandi Bridge, which opened in 1967, is about a half-mile long.
Reuters
ROME — A major highway bridge along the northern Italian coast collapsed Tuesday in an alarming infrastructure failure, sending concrete and vehicles plunging more than 150 feet and leaving dozens dead in the rubble below.
As the death toll climbed, reaching 35 by the evening, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, officials here were preparing to investigate how a bridge that had stood for five decades suddenly gave out, turning a major transportation artery into an earthquake-like scene of destruction.
“These kind of tragedies cannot and should not happen in a civil country,” Italy’s transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, told the Italian TV channel TG1. “Those who will be considered responsible will need to pay to the last cent. It should not be possible to see images like these in a country like Italy.”
The event mortified a country that is increasingly known, despite its beauty, for its creaky underpinnings, particularly after two decades of economic stagnation. The bridge collapse took place during one of Italy’s busiest periods for holiday traffic, when families abandon cities en masse and head for the beach, including to the small towns to the east and west of Genoa overlooking the Ligurian Sea.
The collapse in Genoa occurred during a torrential rainstorm and left slabs of gray concrete and twisted strands of iron blanketing railroad tracks, buildings and a river bed filled with weeds and marsh grass. As helicopters waited nearby, rescuers with the help of sniffing dogs scrambled to pull people from the rubble, scaling slabs of concrete angled like mountains.
One Italian official told ANSA that 30 to 35 cars and three trucks were on the Morandi Bridge when it collapsed. The bridge spans a three-quarter-mile section of the coastal city and carries highway traffic between Italy and France. Video showed eyewitnesses screaming just after a section of the bridge gave way. One truck was stopped just a few feet from the edge of the chasm — the edge of the bridge sheared cleanly off. “O Dio, O Dio, O Dio,” an onlooker screamed as he recorded massive trusses peeling off the bridge, veiled by a thick sheet of rain.
One eyewitness, who gave his name as Andrea Rescigno and said he was in his car at the time of the bridge collapse, said in a phone interview with Genoa TV station Primocanale that he saw “cars and trucks plunging into the void.”
“I saw death,” Rescigno said. “My wife screamed at me to stop. If not for that we’d be dead now.”
It was unclear what had caused the collapse, but the event raised questions among some Italian government officials about maintenance of their country’s infrastructure — a common concern in developed countries, where many of the major roadways were built decades ago. The prosecutor’s office in Genoa said it was ready to open a criminal inquiry.
The company that operates and maintains the highway, along with many other roads in Italy, said in a statement Tuesday that “stabilization” work was ongoing at time of the collapse. The highway bridge was erected in the 1960s, the company, Autostrade per l’Italia, said.
“The causes of the collapse will be the subject of an in-depth analysis as soon as it is possible to gain safe access to the site,” Autostrade per l’Italia said.
After the collapse in Genoa, several people were pulled from the rubble alive, according to Italian media reports. Prime minister Giuseppe Conte was planning Tuesday to visit Genoa, and French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that “France stands by Italy” and “is ready to provide all necessary support.”
BREAKING. OMG, a motorway bridge has just collapsed over houses, buildings a railway in Genoa, #Italy, several victims feared.
(in the pics the bridge before and after the incident) pic.twitter.com/W0OK3Zy8h9 — Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) August 14, 2018
The disaster and its aftermath provide a test for Italy’s new government, a coalition of two populist parties that took power two-and-a-half months ago. The government had not placed an emphasis on road and highway spending in its platform, but its leaders spoke Tuesday about the need for investment. Speaking to TG1, Toninelli said Italy would need to perform checkups on highway bridges built between the 1950s and 1970s.
Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, the highest-profile politician in Italy’s government, said the country needed to figure out the “names and surnames of those who are guilty of these unacceptable deaths.” He also pushed back on European Union budget rules that he said prevented Italy from spending fully on hospitals, railways, schools and highways that “are in need of maintenance."
“We can’t spend money because of European constraints,” Salvini said.
The Morandi Bridge was named after its engineer, Riccardo Morandi, who died in 1989, but locals often called it the Brooklyn Bridge because of its passing resemblance. The bridge ran parallel to the coastline, roughly one mile inland, crossing an industrial area lined with railroad tracks.
One engineer familiar with the bridge said there were signs of trouble: The bridge was “continuously under maintenance” and showed “grave issues of corrosion,” Antonio Brencich, an associate professor of construction at the University of Genoa, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa, Italy, on Aug. 14. Both sides of the highway fell. (Luca Zennaro/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Marco Ponti, an expert on the economics of transportation and an advisor to the transportation ministry, said that reinforced concrete can “hold its own for 50 years.” But after that point, “it gets troublesome,” he said, because the iron bars used in the structure can corrode.
“It’s those bars that can lead reinforced concrete structures to collapse,” Ponti said in a telephone interview. “So after 50 years you need to pay close attention.”
Over the last few years Italy has experienced several other infrastructure issues, including the collapse of a highway overpass last year near the Adriatic coast that killed a couple in their vehicle. In 2016 there was a similar incident that in which a collapsing bridge killed one driver.
Antonio Occhiuzzi, the director of the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Construction Technology, said that the common thread in these and other failures was the age of the infrastructure.
“Most Italian road infrastructure is more than 50 years old,” Occhiuzzi said. “Tens of thousands of bridges in Italy have practically outlived the lifespan for which they were designed and built.”
Modernizing roads and bridges would cost “tens of billions of euros,” Occhiuzzi said.
OMG. An aeral view of the tragedy in #Genoa, where a major motorway bridge has collapsed. This is appalling. #Italy
via @belcastrotw pic.twitter.com/jodF6eIUP8 — Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) August 14, 2018
Selk reported from Washington. Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report.
