Update 8 with latest death toll, new pictures

A motorway bridge collapsed on Tuesday in torrential rain near the northern Italian port city of Genoa, with the ambulance services saying that dozens had perished. By 5.45pm, 35 had been confirmed dead by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

The bridge passes over a densely populated area, raising fears that there will also be victims on the ground, apart from those in the vehicles on the bridge at the time.

The Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said that the collapse looked like "an immense tragedy".

"I'm following with great apprehension what has happened in Genoa, which appears to be an immense tragedy," Toninelli said on Twitter. Soon afterward, Italy's Adnkronos news agency cited an emergency ambulance service spokesman estimating dozens had perished.

Genoese media reported that hundreds of metres of the A10 had collapsed and that dozens of cars were on the section at the time. Dramatic photos show one truck which stopped just metres before the edge of the collapse.

Italian media house RAI reported that there were some 200 firefighters already on the scene and that at least two people had been pulled alive from the rubble

Italian television showed images of the collapsed bridge, which was built on the A10 toll motorway in the 1960s. Restructuring work on the bridge was carried out in 2016.

No Maltese casualties reported so far

The Maltese Embassy in Rome said it had made contact with all Maltese nationals registered with the embassy as living in the area and all were accounted for.

"We are also calling Maltese transport agencies to see if they have any drivers who may be in the area and are unaccounted for or need assistance. So far all is OK too," ambassador Vanessa Frazier told Times of Malta.

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