MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Consulate General in Milan is still checking if there were Filipinos among those who were killed or injured in the collapse of a highway bridge in the Italian city of Genoa, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
At least 26 people were killed and 15 others injured in the incident, which Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte called "an immense tragedy... inconceivable in a modern system like ours, a modern country."
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The Philippine government has expressed its sympathies to the families of thiose who died in the bridge collapse.
The Philippine team sent to Genoa reported that a Filipina and her Italian husband were advised to evacuate their residence at the foot of the ridge as the structure may still collapse.
The team also reported that no Filipinos have been brought to the two hospitals where the dead and injured were taken.
"Authorities in Genoa said rescue operations are still ongoing and that they will let the Consulate General know if there were Filipinos among the victims as soon as the identities and nationalities of the casualties have been confirmed," the DFA said in a statement.
Italian authorities are yet to determine what caused the Morandi Bridge to fall. The disaster has focused attention on the European country's aging infrastructure, particularly its concrete bridges and viaducts built in the postwar boom of the 1950s and 1960s.
Conte traveled to the site of the disaster late Tuesday in the port city, calling it an "immense tragedy." He told RAI state TV "it is shocking to see the twisted metal and the bridge collapsed with victims who were extracted."
Conte also praised the hundreds of rescue workers still at the site, saying "they saved people who fell 45 meters (nearly 150 feet) and are now alive and in the hospital." – Patricia Lourdes Viray with Associated Press