22 killed as highway bridge collapses in Italy
Rome, Aug 14 : A section of a highway bridge collapsed in the Italian city of Genoa during heavy rain on Tuesday, plummeting vehicles up to 90 metres to the ground and killing at least 22 people, officials said.
The vice minister for infrastructure, Edoardo Rixi, said the death toll was expected to rise, while Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said it was likely to be "an immense tragedy", the BBC reported.
The 100-metre (328-feet), two-lane section of the Morandi bridge collapsed in the afternoon. Firefighting crews were searching alongside urban search and rescue teams for people trapped in their vehicles under the rubble.
The police linked the disaster to what they called "a violent cloudburst". According to reports, the collapsed section had mostly fallen on to rail tracks below. The bridge stands on the A10 toll motorway, which serves the Italian Riviera and southern coast of France.
It was built in the 1960s and the missing section was dozens of metres in length. It ran across the span of the Polcevera stream. Video footage appeared to show one of the towers holding up the suspension bridge collapsing in stormy weather.
"It was just after 11.30 when we saw lightning strike the bridge," eyewitness Pietro M all'Asa was quoted as saying by Italy's Ansa news agency. "And we saw the bridge going down."
Traffic was queuing on the bridge at the time, another eyewitness told Italian public television.
One image posted by the regional emergency services showed a truck perched at the end of the surviving bridge section immediately before the drop.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted a message of sympathy to the people of Italy and said he was ready to offer any necessary aid.
Local media estimated that around 10 vehicles could be trapped in the rubble.
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Emotional tributes paid to cops killed in blast at gunpowder dump of Maoists in Chhattisgarh
Narayanpur (Chhattisgarh) (PTI): Emotional scenes were witnessed on Sunday as wreaths were laid on the mortal remains of three of the four police personnel killed in an explosion in a gunpowder dump of Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district.
The grieving family members were inconsolable, while security personnel tried to comfort them.
Amid chants of "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram," public representatives, along with senior police and administrative officials, paid tributes to the deceased personnel.
The wreath-laying ceremony to pay homage to Inspector Sukhram Vatti (40), constables Krishna Komra (35) and Sanjay Gadhpale (29), killed in the explosion on Saturday, was held at the Police Lines in Narayanpur district, neighbouring Kanker.
The mortal remains of constable Parmanand Komra (29), who succumbed to injuries during treatment in Raipur, will be shifted to Kanker, where a separate wreath-laying ceremony will be held, police said.
Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj Pattilingam, after paying homage, told reporters that the four police personnel made the supreme sacrifice while protecting the region.
"I pay my homage to them," he added.
The four personnel were killed while they were attempting to dispose of a gunpowder dump hidden earlier by Maoists in a forest near Aadnar village under Chhotebethiya police station limits in Kanker district, according to police.
It was the first explosion linked to Naxalites in the state since it was declared free from armed Maoists on March 31, and also the first instance this year in which security personnel engaged in anti-Naxal operations lost their lives.
District Reserve Guard (DRG) official Vatti, who was leading the team, hailed from Bijapur district. Constable Krishna Komra of the district force and constables Gadhpale and Parmanand Komra of the Bastar Fighters were residents of different villages in Kanker.
