Family's Bodies Found Days After Genoa Bridge Collapse

It's been nearly a week since an "apocalyptic" bridge collapse in Italy, and the death toll has climbed for perhaps the last time. Reuters reports the bodies of three family members—the last three people believed missing—were pulled from a crushed car over the weekend in the rubble of Genoa's Morandi Bridge, bringing the count of people killed in Tuesday's catastrophe to 43. Via the Washington Post, the ANSA news agency reports the family, which included a child, had been headed on vacation. Nine people remain hospitalized, four of them critically, per Genoa's prefecture. A fire brigade official says the wreckage will continue to be searched to be doubly sure there isn't anyone they missed, though rescuers believe everyone who was on the bridge has been accounted for.

The BBC reports that Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte presided over a state funeral for nearly 20 of the victims over the weekend, though some families rejected the public overtures, either wanting to mourn privately or because they were fuming at the government for the tragedy. "We do not want farcical ceremonies," one family member told a local newspaper. "Our children are not a tool for public parades." Meanwhile, via the Independent, a 1979 report has emerged from the bridge's engineer that warned about deterioration risks. Riccardo Morandi noted the salty ocean air and pollution from a neighboring factory had led to a "well-known loss of superficial chemical resistance of the concrete," and that the bridge would need constant upkeep to get rid of rust and other vulnerabilities. The cause of the collapse is still under investigation. (More Genoa stories.)