Firefighters with sniffer dogs were working through the night to try to find survivors beneath the rubble of a giant bridge that collapsed in the Italian port city of Genoa.

At least 35 people, including a child, died in the disaster, which happened as the city was lashed by an intense thunderstorm, but the toll was expected to rise.

Officials said 15 people were injured and 10 of them were in a critical condition. Four people were pulled alive from the rubble.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte called it "an immense tragedy ... inconceivable in a modern system like ours, a modern country."

Dozens of cars and trucks plunged 150ft to the ground after the elevated motorway suddenly collapsed.