Erano stati travolti dalla furia dell’acqua mentre stavano tornando a casa in auto

È stato trovato il cadavere di Nicolò, il bambino di due anni che risultava disperso dal 4 ottobre scorso a causa del nubifragio in cui sono morti la madre ed il fratello di sette anni. A scoprire il corpo sono stati i vigili del fuoco ed il personale della Protezione civile regionale. Il corpo è stato trovato a circa cinquecento metri dal luogo in cui era stato individuato il cadavere della mamma del bambino, Stefania Signore.

Le ricerche non erano mai state interrotte, grazie anche all’ausilio di droni e di un georadar del Cnr. Il corpo del bambino era a monte rispetto al punto in cui vennero ritrovati la madre ed il fratello. Il corpo era nascosto sotto terra, coperto anche da un ammasso di rami e sterpaglie, trasportati dalla furia dell’acqua che travolse la famiglia che stava viaggiando a bordo di un’autovettura per rientrare a casa.

Il ritrovamento è avvenuto otto giorno dopo la tragedia e nel giorno in cui, oggi pomeriggio alle 15,30 nella chiesa di Gizzeria, saranno celebrati i funerali della mamma e del fratello, con il lutto cittadino proclamato a Lamezia Terme, Gizzeria, Curinga e San Pietro a Maida.</s>
• A high-speed train derailed in Hanover, Germany, in June 1998, and its flipping cars caused an overpass to collapse, killing 101 people.
• A bridge near Gueckedou, Guinea, collapsed under the weight of a truck in 2007, killing 65 people.
• More than 50 people died in March 2001 when a pillar on a 116-year-old bridge in Lisbon, Portugal, failed, sending a tour bus and two vehicles into the Douro River.
• An estimated 50 people were killed when heavy rains caused a bridge to collapse in Aflou, Algeria, in October 1995.
• Forty-two people were killed in Oakland, California, during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 when the Cypress Street Viaduct collapsed onto the Nimitz Freeway below.

At least 26 people are dead after a bridge in Italy collapsed during a violent storm, sending vehicles plunging nearly 150 feet into a heap of rubble. Here's a look at other deadly bridge collapses around the world:</s>GENOA, Italy (AP) — The latest developments following the deadly collapse of a highway bridge in Italy (all times local):

A survivor of the Italian bridge collapse has described the highway falling out from under him. Another described trying to abruptly flip her car into reverse, and then grabbing her 3-year-old son and dashing to safety.

Davide Capello told France’s BFM television that he was driving on the Genoa bridge Tuesday when “I heard a heavy sound, and I saw cars in front of me falling. I saw the road collapse then I fell with them. I thought it was all over for me.”

Capello told BFM that he survived with only minor injuries because his car fell between concrete blocks that formed a sort of protection from further damage.

A French lawyer identified only as Leonine by Francetvinfo told the broadcaster that she and her husband and 3-year-old son were just entering the bridge when “we saw the pylon go completely to the right, and we realized what was happening.”

They tried to reverse the car, then “opened our doors, took our son out of his car seat and then left running until the tunnel.”

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says the search is continuing for people under the rubble of the collapsed bridge in Genoa, but he has declined to say how many people are feared missing.

Salvini said in Genoa on Wednesday that it is hard to establish who is not responding because they are on vacation and “who doesn’t respond because they are under the rubble.”

He added that he hoped the number still buried will be small, adding “miracles are still possible.”

At least 39 people were killed in Tuesday’s collapse.

Separately, local officials say they are taking data from people whose friends or relatives are missing, but that they do not yet know how many cars exactly were on the bridge when it collapsed and cannot extrapolate how many people might be buried in the rubble.

The Italian Cabinet has approved a 12-month state of emergency for Genoa after a key highway bridge collapsed, killing at least 39 people.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says his government won’t wait until prosecutors finish investigating the deadly Genoa bridge collapse to yank the concession from the main private company that maintains Italy’s highways.

Conte led an emergency Cabinet meeting Wednesday in Genoa, a day after the highway bridge collapsed. He called the tragedy “unacceptable in a modern society” and vowed to work so similar events won’t happen again.

He said Italy will look for another company to maintain much of the nation’s highway system and will demand “more stringent” rules about maintenance. Conte said: “we cannot wait for justice” and that “all citizens must travel in safety.”

Conte also called for swift removal of the tons of debris that fell in Genoa to facilitate rail travel and reduce the danger of floods.

Italy’s infrastructure minister says apartment buildings might have to be destroyed because of the Genoa highway bridge collapse.

About 630 people live in apartment buildings practically under or right next to part of the highway bridge that was left standing after Tuesday’s collapse. By Wednesday, they all had been evacuated by authorities.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli said in a Facebook post that lodgings will be found for them. But he says ultimately their apartments might have to be destroyed.

Toninelli said, after emergency workers removed tons of concrete, steel and vehicle debris, “we must think about the demolition of what remains of Morandi Bridge and houses beneath it.”

He said reconstruction of the key artery should begin “as quickly as possible.” The highway bridge was a link between two major highways, one going to France and the other to Milan.

Italy’s transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, says the leaders of the private company that manages many of Italy’s highways — including the section of a bridge that collapsed in Genoa — should resign.

Toninelli said in a Facebook post that due to “serious faults” his ministry had activated procedures to revoke Autostrade Per L’Italia’s concession to run highways and to impose fines of up to 150 million euros ($170 million).

The holding company that controls Autostrade SRL has taken a hit on the stock market. Atlantia closed down 5.4 percent on Tuesday, burning 1.1 billion euros in capital. Markets were closed for an Italian bank holiday Wednesday.

Autostrade has said it would work with Italian authorities to determine what caused the highway bridge to collapse, killing 39 people, and to find a safe, speedy solution to rebuilding the key bridge.

A witness to the deadly Genoa highway bridge collapse has provided a dramatic account of the disaster to Italian television SKY TG24, including a description of how a green truck stopped just short of the abyss.

A driver identified only as Idris said the truck was saved because another vehicle passed it at the last second, forcing the truck to brake slightly. Just then, Idris said, the passing car “went down.”

Idris said the driver of the green truck braked right where the bridge collapsed. He says the driver “went back three meters (yards) then left the motor running and ran. I was behind him, two cars back. I backed up a little, leaving space for other cars. When I saw the thing was so big, that everything had fallen, I took the keys and got out of there.”

Italy’s deputy premier, Luigi Di Maio, is blaming the collapse of a major highway bridge in Genoa on a lack of maintenance by the private company that operates many of the nation’s toll highways.

Speaking in Genoa, Di Maio said Wednesday that he was looking at revoking highway concessions.

He said of the holding company that controls Autostrade Per Italia: “instead of investing money for maintenance, they divide the profits and that is why the bridge falls.”

Di Maio, who leads the anti-business 5-Star Movement party that is part of Italy’s coalition government, took a swipe at the Benetton group, which controls Autostrade SRL through its Atlantia holding company. He blamed previous Italian governments of turning a blind eye to the health of the nation’s toll highways because of political contributions.

— This entry corrects the spelling of the Benetton group.

Genoa prosecutor Francesco Cozzi says the investigation into the fatal bridge collapse is focusing on maintenance and the design of the 51-year-old bridge.

Cozzi told reporters Wednesday that he didn’t know if anyone bore legal responsibility for the collapse that killed at least 39 people but he said “for sure it was not an accident.”

Cozzi said there were no pending complaints involving the bridge in recent years, and that they were also checking archives.

But he noted if there had been serious concerns about the safety of the bridge in the prosecutor’s office “none of us would have driven over that highway 20 times a month as we do.”

Still, the head of Italy’s transport department has said that a $22.7 million safety upgrade for the bridge had been planned.

Three French citizens are among dozens of dead in a highway bridge collapse in Italy at the height of holiday travel season.

The French Foreign Ministry says Wednesday that the victims include three French citizens and expressed condolences to their families. It did not release their identities. Local media reported they were two young women and a man from Toulouse who had traveled to Italy for a music festival.

The statement says the French government is in touch with Italian authorities to determine if there are other French victims.

Italian authorities say at least 39 were killed in Tuesday’s disaster on a highway in Genoa that connects Italy to France. It happened as many families were on the road ahead of a major summer holiday Wednesday in parts of Europe.

Pope Francis has led prayers for the victims of the Genoa highway bridge collapse.

Francis also noted the shock of Genoa’s population in remarks Wednesday to faithful in St. Peter’s Square.

Authorities said at least 39 were killed in the bridge’s collapse on Tuesday in the northwestern Italian port city.

Francis said: “I am especially thinking of all those tried by the tragedy in Genoa yesterday, which caused victims and a sense of loss in the population.”

He expressed his “spiritual closeness” to the victims, the injured and their families and the hundreds of people who were forced to flee homes in the area.

He then led thousands of people in the square in a special prayer for the victims and their loved ones.

Italian authorities have raised the number of confirmed deaths to 39 in the Genoa highway bridge collapse.

Angelo Borrelli, the head of the civil protection department, announced the latest death toll at a news conference in Genoa on Wednesday.

Borrelli said some 1,000 rescuers have been working since after the collapse Tuesday to search for “any possible missing” persons.

He added that 15 people were injured when a 80-meter (260-foot) stretch of highway broke off, sending vehicles plunging from the bridge.

Albanian authorities say that two Albanian men were killed in the collapse of the highway bridge in Genoa.

The Albanian Embassy in Rome identified the victims as two young Albanian men named Marjus Djerri and Edi Bokrina on its Facebook page Wednesday, expressing condolences and offering assistance to their families.

Hundreds of thousands of Albanians have moved to Italy seeking better lives following the collapse of the communist regime in the tiny western Balkan country.

Italian authorities have raised the death toll in the Genoa highway bridge collapse to at least 37.

The Italian city’s prefect office announced the updated figure on Wednesday even as rescuers searched through tons of slabs of broken roadbed, smashed concrete chunks and twisted steel for any more survivors.

At least two people were missing.

The Morandi Bridge collapsed without warning Tuesday, sending dozens of vehicles plunging as much as 50 meters (180 feet) below. Sixteen people were injured. State radio said among them was a woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a fire sparked by debris falling into her home and a Czech truck driver who suffered a chest injury.

Many in the city had said the 1967 bridge needed shoring up.

Rescue and recovery efforts continued through the night into the morning in Italy following the collapse of a highway bridge in Genoa, while authorities raised the death toll to 35 with three missing.

Rescuers searched through tons of concrete slabs and steel for survivors or bodies from the collapse a day earlier on the eve of Wednesday’s summer Ferragosto holiday.

State radio Wednesday quoted the prefect’s office confirming a death toll of 35 and denying some news reports that put it at 38.

About a dozen people remained hospitalized in serious condition.

What caused an 80-meter (260-foot) long stretch of highway to break off from the 45-meter (150 foot) high Morandi Bridge in the northwestern port city is under investigation. There had been proposals to upgrade the 1967 bridge.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>MILAN (AP) — A 51-year-old highway bridge in the Italian port city of Genoa collapsed in a driving rain Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 15 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

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

The disaster, on a major interchange connecting Genoa and other northern cities with beaches in eastern Liguria into France, focused attention on Italy’s aging infrastructure, particularly its concrete bridges and viaducts built in the postwar boom of the 1950s and 1960s.

What caused the Morandi Bridge to fall remained unknown, and prosecutors said they were opening an investigation but had not identified any targets. Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said the collapse was “unacceptable” and that if negligence played a role “whoever made a mistake must pay.”

Early speculation focused on the structural weakness of the span.

Witnesses reported hearing a roar as the 45-meter (nearly 150-foot) bridge collapsed in a torrential rain during midday traffic on the eve of a major holiday that sees most Italians abandoning cities for beaches and mountains.

One unidentified woman who was standing below told RAI state TV that it crumbled as if it were a mound of baking flour. Video of the collapse, showing a misty scene of crumbled concrete, captured a man screaming: “Oh, God! Oh, God!”

Civil Protection authorities said at least 30 cars and three heavy vehicles were on the 80-meter (260-foot) section of the span that collapsed in the industrial area of warehouses.

There was an immense gap where the bridge used to be, and one heart-stopping image showed a green truck halted on the rain-slickened roadway just short of the edge.

A man who was standing under the bridge in front of his truck at the time of the collapse called it “a miracle” that he survived. The middle-aged man, who did not give his name, said the shockwave sent him flying over 10 meters (33 feet) into a wall, injuring his right shoulder and hip.

“I was in front of the truck and flew away, like everything else. Yes, I think it’s a miracle. I don’t know what to say. I’m out of words,” he said, walking away from the site.

More than 300 rescue workers and canine crews were on the scene. They used heavy equipment and dogs to search for survivors in the rubble. At least four people were pulled alive from vehicles under the bridge, ANSA reported.

“Operations are ongoing to extract people imprisoned below parts of the bridge and twisted metal,” said Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency.

Officials evacuated several hundred people living along the raised highway that traverses the city as a precaution.

The effort would continue into the night.

“It is a bit like working on an earthquake,” said firefighters spokesman Luca Cari. “The main difficulty is removing the rubble and safeguarding the rescue teams.”

There was confusion over the death toll throughout the day, with different officials giving conflicting numbers.

Officials in the Liguria region said Tuesday night that 26 people had died, saying two more bodies had been found and one of the 16 injured had died in surgery.

After visiting the scene, Conte told RAI state TV the tragedy was “a serious wound for Genoa, Liguria and Italy.”

The Italian CNR civil engineering society said that structures dating from when the Morandi Bridge was built had surpassed their lifespan. It called for a “Marshall Plan” to repair or replace tens of thousands of bridges and viaducts built in the 1950s and 1960s. Updating and reinforcing the bridges would be more expensive than destroying and rebuilding them with technology that could last a century.

They cited previous accidents: a bridge that fell in April 2017 in the northern province of Cuneo, crushing a carabinieri police car after the officers and driver had barely managed to get away in time; and an overpass that in the northern city of Lecco that collapsed under exceptional weight, crushing a car and killing the driver.

The design of the bridge has been criticized in the past. Antonio Brencich, a professor specializing in reinforced concrete construction at the University of Genoa, called the span “a failure of engineering” in an interview in 2016.

“That bridge is wrong. Sooner or later it will have to be replaced. I do not know when. But there will be a time when the cost of maintenance will be higher than a replacement,” he told Italian media Primocanale.

Other engineers said corrosion or weather conditions could have contributed.

“As this reinforced and pre-stressed concrete bridge has been there for 50 years, it is possible that corrosion of tendons or reinforcement may be a contributory factor,” said Ian Firth, former president of The Institution of Structural Engineers, a London-based international network. He called the bridge “an unusual design.”

Mehdi Kashani, an associate professor in structural mechanics at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said maintenance issues and pressure from “dynamic loads,” such as traffic and wind, could have resulted in “fatigue damage in bridge components.”

Borrelli said highway engineers were checking other parts of the bridge and that some areas were evacuated as a precaution.

“You can see there are very big portions of the bridge (that collapsed). We need to remove all of the rubble to ascertain that all of the people have been reached,” he said.

The transport minister, Toninelli, said the company that has the concession to operate that section of highway said its maintenance on the bridge was up to date and no work was being done at the time of the collapse. But he added that they were about to launch a 20 million euro ($22.7 million) bidding process for significant safety work on the bridge.

“There has not been sufficient maintenance and checks, and safety work for many bridges and viaducts and bridges in Italy constructed — almost all — during the 1960s,” he said.

It was the second deadly disaster on an Italian highway in as many weeks.

On Aug. 6, a tanker truck carrying a highly flammable gas exploded after rear-ending a stopped truck and getting hit from behind near the northern city of Bologna. The accident killed one person, injured dozens and blew apart a section of a raised eight-lane highway.

This story has been amended to correct the number of injured.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.</s>A bridge on a main highway between Italy and France collapsed Tuesday in the Italian city of Genoa during a sudden, violent storm, sending vehicles plunging 80 meters (262 feet) into a heap of rubble below.Amalia Tedeschi, a firefighter, told RAI state TV that some 20 vehicles had been involved in the collapse. She said two people had been pulled alive from vehicles in the rubble that fell into an industrial area below the bridge and were being transported by helicopter to a hospital.Italian news agency ANSA citing Interior Ministry said 20 people have died and 13 are injured.The private broadcaster Sky TG24 said a 200-meter (over 650-foot) section of the Morandi Bridge collapsed over an industrial zone. Firefighters told The Associated Press they were worried about gas lines exploding in the area from the collapse.Photos published by ANSA 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 short of the gaping hole in the bridge. The tires of a tractor trailor could be seen in the rubble.Italy's transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, called the collapse "an enormous tragedy."Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said some 200 firefighters were responding to the accident."We are following minute by minute the situation of the bridge collapse in Genoa," Salvini said on Twitter.The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France and other vacation resorts on the eve of a major Italian holiday on Wednesday, Ferragosto. Traffic would have been heavier than usual as many Italians traveled to beaches or mountains.The Morandi Bridge is a main thoroughfare connecting the A10 highway that goes toward France and the A7 highway that continues north toward Milan. Inaugurated in 1967, it is 90 meters (295 feet) high, just over a kilometer (.6 miles) long, with the longest section between supports measuring 200 meters (over 650 feet).ANSA said authorities suspected that a structural weakness caused the collapse on Tuesday.</s>GENOA, Italy (AP) — As more bodies were pulled Wednesday from a mountain of jagged concrete and twisted steel left by a highway bridge collapse that killed 39, prosecutors focused on possible design flaws and past maintenance of the heavily used span, and politicians squabbled over blame.

Motorists, meanwhile, recounted miraculous escapes and the horror of seeing others plunge over the edge.

As a second night descended on the site where part of the Morandi Bridge plunged some 45 meters (150 feet), Interior Minister Matteo Salvini declined to say how many people might still be buried in the debris where about 1,000 rescue workers searched for victims.

The collapse occurred about midday Tuesday, the eve of Italy’s biggest summer holiday, when traffic was particularly busy on the 51-year-old span that links two highways — one leading to France, the other to Milan — from this northwestern port city.

Salvini declined to say how many people are still missing, and he added that trying to locate them was particularly difficult, due to the holiday.

“It’s not easy to distinguish between who doesn’t respond because they are on the other side of the world and turned off their phone to relax” on vacation, and “who’s not responding because they are under the rubble,” he said.

He said he hoped the death toll would not rise.

“Miracles are still possible,” Salvini said.

Authorities urged the quick removal of tons of debris from a dry river bed so that the rubble doesn’t create a makeshift dam if heavy rains fall in the flood-prone city on the Mediterranean.

Debris also must be cleared from railroad tracks, a vital link especially now that Genoa is largely cut in half by the loss of such a key artery, Premier Giuseppe Conte said.

Authorities worried about the stability of remaining large sections of the bridge, prompting a wider evacuation order and forcing about 630 people from nearby apartments, some practically in the shadow of the elevated highway. Firefighters went inside some of the vacated apartments briefly to retrieve documents and, in at least one home, pet cats.

Building a new bridge could require razing the evacuated buildings, said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli.

After leading an emergency Cabinet meeting in Genoa, Conte said there were 39 confirmed dead and 16 injured, including nine in serious condition. Three children were among those killed, Salvini said.

The dead included four French citizens traveling to a music festival and two Albanians.

Genoa Prosecutor Francesco Cozzi told reporters the investigation into the collapse was focused on human causes, specifically any possible design flaws in the bridge’s construction or any inadequate maintenance.

He said he didn’t know who might be responsible, but added: “It wasn’t an accident.”

Asked if authorities had any warning that the bridge could be dangerous, Cozzi indicated that no serious safety concerns had reached his office before the collapse.

Otherwise, “none of us would have driven over that highway 20 times a month, as we do,” he said.

A 20 million-euro ($22.7 million) project to upgrade the bridge’s safety had already been approved, with public bids to be submitted by September. According to business daily Il Sole, improvement work would have involved two weight-bearing columns that support the bridge — including one that collapsed Tuesday.

The bridge, considered innovative when it opened in 1967 for its use of concrete around its cables, was long due for an upgrade, especially since it was more heavily trafficked than its designers had envisioned.

One expert, Antonio Brencich at the University of Genoa, had previously called the bridge “a failure of engineering.” Other engineers, noting its age, said corrosion and decades of wear-and-tear from weather also could have been factors in the collapse.

Conte said the government wouldn’t wait until the investigation was completed to revoke the concession of a private company, Autostrade Per L’Italia, that operates many of the nation’s toll highways. The next company would be held to “more stringent” rules for maintenance.

Residents near the bridge told RAI state TV they would hear maintenance work being done almost nightly.

Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio, of the anti-business 5-Star Movement, alleged Autostrade’s holding company took profits “instead of investing money for maintenance.”

Toninelli, the transportation and infrastructure minister and another populist 5-Star leader, said his ministry had started procedures so Autostrade could be fined up to 150 million euros ($170 million).

Still-dazed and shaken survivors recounted their close brush with death when the collapse of the 80-meter (260-foot) section of the span sent more than 30 cars and three trucks tumbling.

A French lawyer who was in a car with her husband and 3-year-old son said they were just coming onto the bridge when “we saw the pylon go completely to the right, and we realized what was happening.”

The woman, who was identified only as Leonine, told broadcaster Francetvinfo that they tried to make a U-turn but were blocked by traffic.

“We saw a man running and making a sign to everyone to leave,” she said. “We opened our doors, took our son out of his car seat,” and then ran to a nearby tunnel.

One of the widely circulated images of the disaster was a green truck poised on the edge of the span.

A truck driver identified only as Idris who was behind that vehicle said it was saved only because of a motorist who tried to pass it moments earlier. The driver of the green truck apparently had to hit his brakes because of the passing car and was able to stop in time, he added.

“That truck driver is the luckiest in the world,” Idris told Sky TG24. “He should have fallen in. … He braked right where the bridge was broken.”

The passing car plunged into the chasm, he added.

Idris also credited police for hustling 150-200 people off the bridge to the tunnel, then risking their own lives by going back onto the span to bring some of the vehicles to safety.

D’Emilio reported from Rome and Barry from Milan. Simone Somekh in Rome and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
Three people are killed and many others are injured after heavy floods strike the Italian region of Calabria. A bridge collapses and landslides also occur.