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Milan — At least 35 people were killed when a bridge collapsed in the Italian port city of Genoa, police said on Wednesday morning, after firemen worked through the night looking for any survivors buried under the rubble.
"The latest official number is 35 but we can’t rule out it could rise further," a spokesperson for the police in Genoa said.
A 50m high section of the Morandi bridge, including a tower that anchored several stays, crashed down with as many as 35 vehicles driving on it on Tuesday. Huge slabs of reinforced concrete plunged onto two warehouses, train tracks and a riverbed.
The collapse came as the bridge was undergoing maintenance work and as the Liguria region, where Genoa is situated, experienced torrential rainfall.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said a "catastrophe" had hit Genoa and the whole of Italy. "Italians have the right to modern and efficient infrastructure that accompanies them safely through their everyday lives," Mattarella said in a statement.
Rescuers scoured through the wreckage, strewn among shrubland and train tracks, as rescue helicopters winched survivors on stretchers from the ruined bridge. Between firefighters, police and other emergency service, about 1,000 people have been mobilised in the rescue effort, according to the Civil Protection service.
"We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble," 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, 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 said.
The incident — the deadliest of its kind in Europe since 2001 — is the latest in a string of bridge collapses in Italy, a country prone to damage from seismic activity but where infrastructure generally is showing the effects of a faltering economy.
Political capital
The populists setting the agenda in Italy’s coalition government seized on the tragedy to question whether they should respect EU budget constraints.
Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini of the eurosceptic League led the way, telling reporters in Catania, Sicily, that the failure of the roughly 50-year-old suspension bridge shows how important it is to increase investment spending. He hinted that EU spending limits could put lives at risk.
"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," said Salvini. "There can be no tradeoff between fiscal rules and the safety of Italians."
Salvini, who is co-deputy prime minister, vowed to hold those responsible for the disaster accountable. "I have gone over this bridge hundreds of times, and I commit to digging and finding out who is responsible for an unacceptable tragedy, because it’s not possible that in 2018 you can work and die in these conditions," he said.
Italy’s other deputy prime minister, Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio, is expected to arrive at the scene on Wednesday morning, with Salvini to follow in the afternoon.
Salvini’s allies picked up the baton, with transport minister Danilo Toninelli pledging to reverse the shortfall in maintenance and Claudio Borghi, head of the budget committee in the lower house of parliament, complaining about years of spending restrictions.
"The safety of the Italians must come first," he said on Twitter.
"I’m following with the utmost apprehension what is happening in Genoa and what looks like it could be an immense tragedy," he tweeted.
Italy’s deficit this year is forecast to be 1.6% of economic output, well within the eurozone’s limit of 3%. But the European Commission has insisted on narrower deficits for Italy to reduce its €2.3-trillion debt, the largest in Europe.
Former prime minister Matteo Renzi from the centre-left Democratic Party, who has clashed openly with Salvini and Di Maio, criticised the deputy prime minister for playing politics, even as he acknowledged concern about the highways.
"Maybe finally it is the time to discuss infrastructure, but without ideology," he wrote on Twitter. "But today, please, is a day only for silence."
Budget tensions
In the coalition agreement presented in May, the League and Five Star said they would seek a deal with other EU members and the European Commission to exclude some investments from deficit calculations to allow for "consolidating economic growth and the country’s development".
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, an academic roped in to arbitrate between Five Star and the League in government, is also travelling to Genoa from a brief vacation in his native village in the south. He said he was following the situation, but avoided making political comments. Di Maio, who is also on his way to Genoa, made similar comments.
Shares in Atlantia, which manages the stretch of highway, fell 5.4% to the lowest level since April 2017. The company said it is committed to rebuilding the bridge as quickly as possible and will co-operate with any inquiry.
Reuters reported that the transport minister said the process to revoke the concession for the motorway had begun.
Reuters, AFP and Bloomberg
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