A motorway bridge in Genoa, Italy, collapsed in the throes of a heavy storm Tuesday and killed at least 22 people.
Here’s what we know so far.
An 80-meter section of the Morandi viaduct on the A10 toll motorway collapsed at around 11:30 a.m. local time (5.30 a.m. ET) during a torrential downpour in an industrial area of Genoa. The collapsed section fell mostly onto railway lines below and trapped vehicles beneath huge blocks of rubble, officials told AFP.
Italy’s Interior Ministry said 22 people are confirmed dead so far, and five have been taken to hospital in serious condition. A number of vehicles are also still trapped beneath the rubble with dead people inside, Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing rescue teams.
Emergency workers have swarmed on the scene in an effort to locate and rescue survivors, and four people have been rescued alive from the rubble so far, ANSA reported.
Italian police tweeted a picture of a truck that had stopped just meters before the collapsed portion of the bridge.
Italy’s Transport Minister, Danilo Toninelli, tweeted that he was “following with utmost apprehension… what looms as an immense tragedy.”
The bridge — along a major thoroughfare that links central Genoa with the city’s airport — was completed in the 1960s, and upgrade works were last carried out in 2016. The bridge crosses an area of the city containing shopping centers, factories, houses, a railway line and a river.
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