The Italian police said 38 people died this week in the port city of Genoa when a concrete bridge collapsed, revising an earlier count of 39 victims. They included three children, aged eight, 12 and 13.
Italian rescuers have been working since Tuesday to search for survivors among towering slabs of concrete wreckage after a bridge on the A10 motorway linking Genoa to southern France gave way sending dozens of vehicles crashing onto a riverbed, a railway and two warehouses.
A day of national mourning has been announced for Saturday, when the victims will be buried. Efforts are underway to help the 660 people displaced by the tragedy.
In the meantime, the consequences of the tragedy continue to unfold. Deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio said on Thursday that the Italian state will have to take over the country's motorways if "companies who have concessions" are not able to do the job properly,
Di Maio, speaking on Italian radio, also said the concessionary - Atlantia - should have invested more in security instead of being concerned about dividends.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday after an emergency cabinet meeting that the government would not await the outcome of a criminal inquiry into the motorway collapse that killed 38 people this week before moving to strip Autostrade of its toll concession.
Atlantia reacted sharply, warning that doing so would damage investors in the infrastructure group.
Atlantia said Autostrade had a right to a compensation if the concession was revoked or terminated early. However, "the modality of such announcement may have impacts on the Atlantia shareholders and bondholders."
Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, visiting the disaster scene, said bridge operator Autostrade per l'Italia would have to contribute to the cost of its reconstruction as well as pay heavy fines.
But Autostrade, a unit of Milan-listed Atlantia group , said it had done regular, sophisticated checks on the structure before the disaster, relying on "companies and institutions which are world leaders in testing and inspections" and that these had provided reassuring results.
"These outcomes have formed the basis for maintenance work approved by the Transport Ministry in accordance with the law and the terms of the concession agreement," it said.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also declared a state of emergency for Genoa, one of Italy's busiest ports, whose main land corridor with France has effectively been severed.
The Morandi Bridge, named after the engineer who designed it, forms part of the A10 motorway run by Autostrade. The 55-km stretch of the A10 accounts for around 1.7 per cent of total network traffic for Italy's biggest toll road operator, according to one analyst's estimate.
Autostrade's parent, Atlantia, also runs toll-road concessions in Brazil, Chile, India and Poland.