At least 26 people have been killed and 16 injured after a motorway bridge collapsed during a violent storm in Italy.

The dead include at least one child, the Corriere newspaper reports, quoting the Interior Ministry.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte travelled to the site of the disaster late on Tuesday in the port city of Genoa, calling it an ‘immense tragedy’.

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Rescuers reach up to search for any survivors (Picture: EPA)

People were seen climbing over parts of the bridge (Picture: ANSA)

Rescuers recover an injured person from the rubble (Picture: ANSA)

Other pictures captured the tragic moment bodies were lifted from the remnants of the collapsed bridge (Picture: PA)

Rescuers work to recover an injured person from a smashed car underneath the bridge (Picture: ANSA)

The head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Angelo Borrelli, said up to 35 cars and at least three trucks were on the 80-metre section of the span that collapsed.


Others were feared trapped under the rubble, with the death toll still expected to rise.



Seven people are understood to have been pulled alive from the wreckage of the Morandi Bridge after a section collapsed onto an industrial area below.

Photos showed the bodies of victims and survivors being hoisted from the rubble.

The disaster occurred on a major road that connects Italy to France and other resorts on the eve of Ferragosto, a major Italian holiday. Traffic would have been heavier than usual as many people travelled to beaches or mountains.

Mr Conte praised the hundreds of rescue workers still at the site tonight, saying ‘they saved people who fell 45 metres and are now alive and in the hospital’.

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Broadcaster Sky TG24 said the section of the bridge collapsed over an industrial zone. Firefighters have also raised concerns about gas lines.

Photos published by the ANSA news agency on its website showed a huge gulf between two sections of the bridge.

Video captured the sound of a man screaming: ‘Oh god, oh, god.’ Other images showed a green truck that had stopped just yards short of the gaping hole in the bridge.

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The collapsed Morandi Bridge had to undergo ‘constant maintenance’ engineers in Italy said (Picture: Reuters)

The wreckage is unrecognisable (Picture: Rex Features)

Parts of the crossing are still balancing on the wreckage (Picture: ANSA)

The rest of the bridge remains elevated (Picture: ANSA)

The viaduct gave way amid torrential rain (Picture: EPA)

Dozens are feared to be dead (Picture: Alamy Live News)

Interior minister Matteo Salvini said some 200 firefighters responded to the accident.

He said on Twitter: ‘We are following minute by minute the situation for the bridge collapse in Genoa.’

The Morandi Bridge was inaugurated in 1967. It is 295ft high and just over three-quarters of a mile long, with the longest section between supports measuring 650ft.

Experts said that although it was too early to say what might have caused the tragedy, the bridge had been subject to fears over its safety for a number of years.

It had undergone several repair works, with reports it was ‘continually subjected to maintenance work’.

There were said to be major concerns among engineers and locals about the bridge’s ability to hold the volume of traffic that used it daily.

A lorry stopped just before the collapse (Picture: AFP)

Italian firefighters are at the scene of the collapse (Picture: Reuters)

A large section of the Morandi viaduct upon which the A10 motorway runs collapsed in Genoa (Picture: Italian Firefighters)

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The bridge fell into parts of a river (Picture: ANSA)

The viaduct runs over shopping centres, factories, some homes, the Genoa-Milan railway line and the Polcevera river (Picture: EPA)

Vehicles fell from the bridge as it collapsed (Picture: Italian Firefighters)

The remains of the bridge stand over the road as firefighters rush to help those trapped (Picture: Italian Firefighters)

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Police are fighting to find survivors (Picture: ANSA)

Cars were crushed beneath the tarmac (Picture: Italian Firefighters)

A helicopter hovers at the scene (Picture: EPA)

A 650ft long piece of the crossing has fallen (Picture: State Police)

Police and fire brigade officials have been called to the scene

Video caught the moment the bridge collapsed (Picture: State Police)

Despite no deaths or injuries so far being reported, firefighters say they fear a number of cars fell from the bridge during the collapse

The crossing, which was built on the A10 toll motorway in the 1960s, was last reconstructed in 2016