Updated: The final death toll of the Genoa Bridge collapse tragedy is 42. As the country was giving its tributes to the victims in the state funeral, search continued amidst the rubble from the zone.
The last person to be taken lifeless from the area was Mirko Vicini, a 30 year old who was still unaccounted for. Earlier a family of three including a 9 year old child was found lifeless in a car under the rubble.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella presided over a state funeral for 18 of the victims of Tuesday’s bridge collapse in Genoa.
Mr Mattarella and PM Giuseppe Conte are leading mourners at the ceremony.
The Italian President said that the truth needs to come out in the tragedy so that justice is done. Even if justice is done, it won’t cancel the pain of the tragedy.
Earlier
Italy is preparing an official day of mourning Saturday to commemorate the dozens of people killed in Genoa’s bridge disaster with some outraged relatives of victims set to shun the official ceremonies.
Authorities have planned a state funeral service on Saturday at a hall in Genoa, coinciding with a day of mourning. Relatives who gathered at the hall on Friday embraced and prayed over lines of coffins, many adorned with flowers and photographs of the dead.
But according to La Stampa newspaper, the families of 17 victims have refused to take part, while a further seven have yet to decide whether they will attend.
“It is the state who has provoked this; let them not show their faces, the parade of politicians is shameful,” the press cited the mother of one of four young Italians from Naples who died.
The government has set up a commission to examine the causes of the disaster and one member speculated on Friday that a broken cable rod was “a serious work hypothesis”.
Antonio Brencich, a University of Genoa lecturer, said there were “eyewitness accounts and videos that go in this direction”.
The bridge, which was constructed in the 1960s, has cables running directly from the deck to the top of the towers.
The Deputy Premier and Labour and Industry Minister Luigi Di Maio on Friday denied reports that the government was reconsidering its decision to revoke the concession of highways company Autostrade per l’Italia after this week’s bridge-collapse disaster in Genoa. “I say this loud and clear – the political will is there. We want to revoke the concession of Autostrade per l’Italia,” said Di Maio, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S). “You cannot keep pretending that nothing has happened.
“These people continue to have the toll paid without doing ordinary and extraordinary maintenance and it’s time to say no more. They wrote that the government is holding back. That’s false. The government is accelerating and it will revoke the concessions”. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Friday that the government’s decision on revoking the concession of Autostrade per l’Italia will not be influenced by any aid the highways company offers to the victims of this week’s Genoa bridge-collapse disaster.’
AFP/BBC/ANSA
