A bridge in Genoa, Italy, collapsed on Tuesday, leaving 35 people dead and many more injured in what some are describing as an “apocalyptic” event.

An 80-metre section of the bridge, including one set of the supports that tower above it, crashed down in the rain onto the roof of a factory and other buildings.

Fireman, and former goalkeeper of Cagliari football club, Davide Capello (seen below), was driving across the bridge when it collapsed.

He described his narrow escape from death to NewsAU:

“I was driving to Genoa, I was on the bridge,” Capello said, according to local newspaper La Stampa.

“I heard a noise and then it all collapsed. My car fell 30 metres and got stuck in the rubble.

“Some people helped me to get out.

“It’s incredible that I’m still alive. It’s a miracle. I don’t have a single scratch.”

It has now come to light that the bridge collapse was not only predicted, but could also have been prevented:

Antonio Brencich, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Genoa, raised concerns about the structure of the bridge in an interview in 2016.

On Tuesday, 80 metres of the 50-year-old bridge collapsed and sent vehicles plunging 45 metres into a heap of rubble…

Professor Brencich warned it would cost more to repair the “uneven” construction of the major highway in Italy’s city of Genoa.

“The Morandi bridge is referred to as a masterpiece of engineering, in reality it is a bankruptcy,” Brencich said in an interview with Italian TV station primocanale.it.

“There will be a time when maintenance costs will exceed those of reconstruction, and then we will have to proceed with the replacement.”

Sounds like somebody should have paid greater attention to what Brencich had to say, because the area is now a disaster zone.

Hundreds of firefighters and rescue officials are working around the clock to sift through the rubble and help victims of the collapse.

Cars fell into a nearby river, railroad tracks and an industrial zone below.

Video footage has emerged of the incident, depicting the extent of the devastation:

Weather services in the Liguria region had issued a storm warning Tuesday morning:

The national motorways body said on its website that “maintenance works were being carried out on the base of the viaduct”, adding that a crane had been moved on site to assist the work.

Experts say it was almost certainly brought down by a construction flaw or long term wear and tear.

“We’re not giving up hope, we’ve already saved a dozen people from under the rubble,” said rescue official Emanuele Giffi.

“We’re going to work round the clock until the last victim is secured.

“There are buildings that have been hit but it seems that all the victims were on the bridge.”

Thankfully, it was a public holiday on Wednesday in Genoa, which meant that the area below the highway was almost empty when Tuesday’s disaster struck. On a normal day, the death toll may have been even higher.

The leader of the Nationalist League Party in Italy, Matteo Salvini, has vowed to find out who is responsible for the disaster and hold them accountable:

“I have gone over this bridge hundreds of times, and I commit to digging and finding out who is responsible for an unacceptable tragedy, because it’s not possible that in 2018 you can work and die in these conditions,” he said.

The bridge was designed by Riccardo Morandi and built between 1963 and 1967.

[source:newsau]