Genoa church offers prayers for families caught up in bridge tragedy

Italian authorities have revealed three people are still believed to be missing in the twisted remains of the crossing.

Rescue and recovery efforts have continued at the scene of the disaster, which occurred during a torrential downpour when the bridge was busy with people heading away for the summer Ferragosto holiday.

Local pastor, William Jourdan told Premier there could have been even more casualties if the accident didn’t occur in the holiday season.

“For the people belonging to the Church in Italy, it is the major time of holiday so many members of our church are outside of the town and many other people in general are outside of town,” he explained.

“I think that also, one of the reasons why it was possible to avoid a (bigger) tragedy is that if the normal traffic was there, everything could have been worse.”

Italian premier Giuseppe Conte has visited the city and called the collapse of the 51-year-old bridge “a serious wound for Genoa, Liguria and Italy”.

Dozens of cars and other vehicles plunged almost 150ft when a 260ft stretch of road broke off from the 150ft high Morandi Bridge, and the cause is under investigation.

The disaster has focused attention on Italy’s ageing infrastructure, particularly its concrete bridges and viaducts built in the post-war boom of the 1950s and 1960s. There had been proposals to…