At least 35 people were killed when a large section of an Italian motorway bridge collapsed during a rainstorm yesterday.

A 50m-high section of the bridge in the port city of Genoa, including one set of the supports that tower above it, crashed down onto the roof of a factory and other buildings, crushing vehicles below and plunging huge slabs of reinforced concrete into the nearby riverbed.

The head of the civil protection agency, Mr Angelo Borrelli, said there were 30 to 35 vehicles on the bridge when the middle section came down, including three lorries.

About 200 firefighters were on the scene, the fire service said, and Sky Italia television said four people had been pulled from the rubble.

The Morandi Bridge was built in the late 1960s.

SEE TOP OF THE NEWS