22 Confirmed Dead In Italian Bridge Collapse
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
GENOA (CBSMiami/CNN) -- At least 22 people are dead and eight injured following a highway bridge collapse in Italy.
That's according to Italian deputy transport minister Edoardo Rixi who described the scene as, "the biggest tragedy involving a bridge of this importance in Europe in the last decades."
Italian authorities say that about 10 vehicles were involved when the raised highway collapsed during a sudden and violent storm in the northern port city of Genoa.
Several people were extracted alive from the wreckage of vehicles that fell from the bridge to the ground.
Video of the moment part of the viaduct collapsed also captured the sound of a man screaming: "Oh god, oh, god... I feel sick."
The incident occurred around noon (6 a.m. ET) Tuesday, Italian state police said, later posting a video on Twitter of the moment the bridge gave way.
WATCH VIDEO OF THE COLLAPSE HERE
The bridge is a main thoroughfare connecting the A10 highway that goes toward France and the A7 highway that continues north toward Milan.
The bridge, also known as the Polcevera Viaduct, was designed by Italian civil engineer Riccardo Morandi and completed in 1968.
Italy's Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli tweeted, "I am following with the utmost apprehension what has happened to #Genoa and which looms as an immense tragedy. We are in close contact with Autostrade (company managing Italian highways) and we are going to the site with the deputy Minister Rixi. My total closeness at this time to the city."
