Floodlight search for survivors

Highway to hell A large section of the Morandi highway bridge collapsed over an industrial area in Genoa, Italy during a sudden and violent storm, leaving vehicles crushed in rubble below. AP GENOA — Italian rescuers searched through the night Wednesday for any survivors under the shattered remains of a motorway bridge in Genoa as investigators probed what could have caused such a catastrophic collapse.

Some 35 people were killed on Tuesday when a vast span of the Morandi bridge collapsed during a heavy rainstorm, sending vehicles and their drivers plunging 100-meters onto railway tracks below.

Rescuers spent the night searching the tangled remains of the bridge under floodlights and there are fears the toll could rise in what the Italian government has called an “immense tragedy.”

The collapse came as the bridge was undergoing maintenance work and as the Liguria region, where Genoa is situated, experienced torrential rainfall.

“Unfortunately there are around 30 dead and many injured in a serious condition,” Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told reporters.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said a “catastrophe” had hit Genoa and the whole of Italy, as attention turned to what might have caused the collapse and who might be ultimately responsible.

“Italians have the right to modern and efficient infrastructure that accompanies them safely through their everyday lives,” Mattarella said in a statement.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said “all infrastructure” across the country needed to be double-checked. “We must not allow another tragedy like this to happen again,” he added.

Rescuers scouring through the wreckage, strewn among shrubland and train tracks, said there were “dozens” of victims, as rescue helicopters winched survivors on stretchers from the ruined bridge.

Cars and trucks were tangled in the rubble and nearby buildings damaged by vast chunks of concrete, according to an Agence France Presse photographer at the scene.

“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.”

As cars and trucks tumbled off the bridge, Afifi Idriss, 39, a Morrocan lorry driver, just managed to come to a halt in time.

“I saw the green lorry in front of me stop and then reverse so I stopped too, locked the truck and ran,” he told AFP.