The Latest: Genoa soccer teams attend bridge victims funeral

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

GENOA, Italy (AP) — The Latest on the Italy bridge collapse (all times local):

12:35 p.m.

Players and managers of Genoa’s two major league soccer teams were among those attending the state funeral Saturday for victims of the city’s bridge collapse.

Both the Sampdoria and Genoa teams had already announced they wouldn’t play their matches this weekend but at a later date.

Saturday is a day of national mourning. The funeral for 19 victims was held in a pavilion on the city’s fair grounds. The unofficial death toll in Tuesday’s collapse rose to 42 after four bodies were found in the rubble Saturday.

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12:05 p.m.

Italy’s president has comforted families of many of the Genoa bridge collapse victims.

Before the service began, President Sergio Mattarella paused in silence before the coffins then spoke briefly with each group of families.

The unofficial death toll stands at 42 after the discovery of four bodies in the Morandi Bridge’s rubble Saturday by rescuers.

Also attending the service were Premier Giuseppe Conte and several Cabinet members, including Italy’s transportation and infrastructure minister.

Investigators are working to see if a design flaw or improper maintenance might have caused the collapse on Tuesday.

Saturday has been declared a day of national mourning.

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10:50 a.m.

Italian state radio says the body of a 30-year-old man has been found in the Genoa bridge collapse, bringing the death toll to 42.

The report also said rescuers believe all those previously thought missing might now have been accounted for, after an elderly man called local authorities to say he was OK and not involved in Tuesday’s tragedy.

The local prefect’s office, which is issuing official numbers of the dead, said it didn’t immediately have information about the latest bodies found.

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10 a.m.

Italian media say three more bodies have been found in rubble of the Genoa bridge collapse, raising the death toll to 41.

Genoa’s prefect’s office said it didn’t immediately have official confirmation of the reports by ANSA news agency and other Italian news media Saturday that the bodies were found by rescuers overnight.

ANSA said the bodies were found inside a car smashed under a huge block of concrete from the collapse on Tuesday. It said they were three family members, including a child, who had been traveling for a vacation when their car, with about 30 other vehicles, plunged when the bridge gave way.

Two other people are believed to be still missing as rescue work continues.

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