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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. Just then, Idris said, the passing car “went down.”

Idris said the driver of the green truck braked right where the bridge collapsed. 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. "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. 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. 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. 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.