Search and rescue operatives in Italy have found more bodies buried under the wreckage of the recently collapsed Genoa motorway bridge, scaling up the death toll to 43 over the weekend. Meanwhile, the search operation conducted on site of has finally ended.
According to BBC, rescue workers have unearthed the bodies of three more people on Saturday night, bringing the number of deaths to 43.
A 200-meter section of the Morandi highway bridge in Genoa, Italy, caved in, plunging cars and trucks over a hundred feet down to the ground on Tuesday.
Nine people are still in hospitals, four of them in critical condition.
All the names previously listed as missing are now being accounted for, prompting the search and rescue team comprised of members of the local fire department and other international volunteers to wrap up operation on the site.
However, crews working closely on ground zero since last week told the press that they would still continue to look under the mounds of debris, just in case.
Stefano Zanut, fire officer of the Genoa prefecture, told local news outlet Sky TG24 and quoted over at Reuters that they have to make sure "nobody has been left under the rubble."
Meanwhile, the governing bodies overseeing the clearing operation were also issuing orders to make the site safe and secure before residents living around the area return to their homes.
Previous reports indicated the evacuation of more than 400 people, as ordered by local authorities, during the operation last week.
Investigations were also conducted with aims to establish the cause of the structural disaster.
The motorway which linked the Italian city to the southern French border on the west was under the management and maintenance of Autostrade per I'Italia.
Funeral Rites Held
A mass was held for 19 victims at the Exhibition and Trade Center of Genoa. The said funeral proceeding was conducted by the northern port city's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco.
In a statement made during the occasion and quoted over at ABC, the cleric said that the structural failure was a "gash in the heart of Genoa," creating a "deep wound" among its people.
Cardinal Bagnasco went on to point out in the homily that the accident served as a reminder on the "inexorable fragility of the human condition."
He further told those who were present at the funeral service that Pope Francis extended his condolences to all those who suffered because of the tragedy.
