Nearly 200-meter section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed onto the buildings in Genoa. – I am anxiously watching what’s going on. It is a huge tragedy – said Italian Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Danilo Toninelli.
The bridge on the A10 motorway, connecting Italy with France, collapsed into a part of the residential area. “The central span gave, and a moment later everything fell,” says the witness, Davide Ricci, quoted by telegraph.co.uk. Others argued that they had seen eight or nine vehicles falling down into buildings. On some photos from the place of the tragedy you can see a truck that stopped just above the precipice, almost 90 meters above the ground.
ABC News reported that there at 35 victims. A rescue operation is in progress. Nearly 200 firemen work on site. The British portal reports after the ANSA agency that one of the wounded was extracted from the ruins so far.
Photo: Wikipedia / CC BY 2.5 / Mortadelo2005
The bridge was built in the 1960s. Two years ago, it underwent renovation. For now, it is not known what caused the tragedy, experts estimate, however, that the collapse could have occurred as a result of recent, very heavy rains.
Crolla ponte a #Genova ci dono decine di vittime https://t.co/jxHqg23yfI pic.twitter.com/Qj8nxZUY1U
— Agenzia ANSA (@Agenzia_Ansa) August 14, 2018
Photo: YouTube