Italy bridge collapse: What we know so far

Rescuers are continuing to look for survivors after a motorway bridge collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa on Tuesday.

Police say at least 37 people were killed when dozens of vehicles fell 45m (148ft) from the Morandi bridge during bad weather.

The number of people who are reportedly missing ranges from four to 12.

Images from the scene show a huge section of the bridge missing, with vehicles perched close to the edge.

Here is what we know so far about the disaster.

The bridge

The Morandi bridge carries a major road, the A10 toll motorway, which serves the Italian Riviera and links northern Italy to France.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Parts of the bridge can be seen collapsing

Part of the 1.2km (0.8 mile) long bridge spans the Polcevera waterway, with other portions reaching over railway lines and buildings.

It was designed by Riccardo Morandi and completed in 1967, but restructuring work was done in 2016.

Some major repairs were also done to the bridge in the 1990s.

Interactive Genoa bridge collapse before and after Italian police, August 2018 Google, May 2015

The motorway operator said work to shore up the bridge's foundation was being carried out at the time of the collapse, during which time it was being constantly monitored.

The collapse

A section measuring about 200m fell at around 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT). Police say there was a violent cloudburst at the time.

It is not yet clear what caused the disaster, but several explanations have been offered.

Some experts have suggested that the ongoing maintenance work may have been a factor in the collapse.

Others have suggested it may have been caused by a design flaw or heavy traffic.

The bridge sees some 25 million vehicles every year, and a 2011 report by an Italian highways company said that the bridge had been suffering from degradation.

Antonio Brencich, a structural engineer who lectures at Genoa University, wrote in 2016 that it may have been more economical to rebuild the bridge because of the ongoing maintenance costs.

"There are errors in this bridge. Sooner or later, it will have to be replaced. I don't know when," he warned.

The victims

Image copyright EPA Image caption Rescuers from all over northern Italy came to help

Details about those killed in the collapse are continuing to emerge, but some victims have been named.

A young family of three were killed after their car fell from the bridge. They have been identified in Italian media as Roberto Robbiano, Ersilia Piccinino, and their seven-year-old son Samuel.

Amateur footballer Andrea Cerulli was also killed as he was driving to work. His team in Genoa confirmed his death in a tribute posted to their Facebook page.

The survivors

Some survivors have recounted dramatic stories of the disaster.

The car of Davide Capello, 33, a former goalkeeper for Serie A side Cagliari, went down with the collapsed bridge but he survived.

"I was driving along the bridge, and at a certain point I saw the road in front of me collapse, and I went down with the car," he told local media.

"I was able to get out... I don't know how my car wasn't crushed. It seemed like a scene from a film, it was the apocalypse," he said.

One man who was standing underneath the bridge said the collapse sent him flying more than 10m into a wall.

"I was in front of [my] truck and flew away, like everything else," he told the Associated Press. "Yes, I think it's a miracle. I don't know what to say. I'm out of words," he said.

The response

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Interior Minister and Deputy PM Matteo Salvini said he was committed to finding those responsible

Interior Minister and Deputy PM Matteo Salvini said the disaster showed that Italy needed to spend more on infrastructure regardless of European Union budget constraints.

"We should ask ourselves whether respecting these limits is more important than the safety of Italian citizens," he said. Obviously for me, it is not."

He added that he was committed to finding those responsible for the "unacceptable disaster".

"I will do everything to get the names and surnames of the managers responsible, past and present," he said.

On Wednesday, Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli called for resignations at the Italian highways agency which operated the bridge.

"The top management of Autostrade per l'Italia must step down first of all," he said in a Facebook post.

He added that moves to fine and dissolve the company were under way.

But an official from the company insisted the collapse was "unexpected and unpredictable".

"The bridge was constantly monitored and supervised well beyond what the law required," Stefano Marigliani told Reuters news agency.

Italy’s transport minister has called on senior managers at the company that operated the collapsed Genoa motorway bridge to resign, as the death toll rose to at least 39.

Rescuers searched overnight for survivors through tons of concrete and steel under the shattered structure of the Morandi Bridge. “We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble,” a fire official, Emanuele Giffi, told AFP. “We’re going to work round the clock until the last victim is secured.”

It is not yet clear what caused the bridge to collapse, which came as maintenance work was being done on the bridge and as the Liguria region experienced torrential rainfall.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abandoned vehicles seen on the Morandi motorway bridge. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Danilo Toninelli, the transport minister, said on Wednesday that the top level of Autostrade per l’Italia “must step down first of all”. He told RAI television the government intended to cancel its deal to manage the A10 toll motorway connecting Genoa to the French border.

“I have given mandate to my ministry to start all proceedings to apply the agreement, that is to revoke the concession from these companies and seek significant sanctions.”

The deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday: “Those responsible for the tragedy in Genoa have a name and a surname, and they’re called Autostrade per l’Italia. For years it’s been said that private management would be better than that of the state.

Entire family dies in bridge collapse in Genoa Read more

“And so today, we have one of the biggest dealers in Europe telling us that the bridge was safe and there was no worry of it collapsing. Autostrade had to maintain it but didn’t. It takes the highest road tolls in Europe and pays low taxes, moreover in Luxembourg.”

The interior minister, Matteo Salvini, said earlier on Wednesday that those responsible would “pay, pay everything, and pay dearly”.

A criminal inquiry into the collapse has been announced.

In what witnesses described as an “apocalypse”, an 80-metre section of the Morandi Bridge 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.

Aerial footage showed that the falling structure narrowly missed houses and other buildings as it collapsed over a river.

Play Video 0:52 Aerial footage shows scale of destruction after Genoa bridge collapse – video

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 on the eve of the Ferragosto public holiday.

“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.”

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.”

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Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister, arrived in Genoa on Tuesday night.: “It’s too early to talk about the causes and hypothesis, but one thing is certain, a tragedy of this kind cannot be repeated,” he said.

Play Video 1:17 Genoa motorway bridge collapse caught on camera – video report

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 said. “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 that the bridge was constantly monitored.

Andrea Montefusco, an engineering expert at Luiss University in Rome who grew up in Genoa said: “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 other 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.

Salvini also claimed that EU spending rules could have been responsible for the collapse of the bridge. “If external constraints prevent us from spending to have safe roads and schools, then it really calls into question whether it makes sense to follow these rules,”he said.

The EU does not place restrictions on how national governments spend their budgets, although eurozone members are expected to keep debt and deficits within limits.

Rescuers are continuing to look for survivors after a motorway bridge collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa on Tuesday.