Rescuers used diggers to claw through mountains of rubble, calling out in the hope of finding survivors as a desperate search for victims of the viaduct collapse entered its fourth day Friday with up to 20 people still missing.
Italy’s government has intensified its attacks on the operator of the decades-old Morandi bridge, which buckled without warning on Tuesday, sending cars, trucks and huge chunks of concrete plunging 45 meters onto railway tracks below.
Anger is rising over the tragedy that left dozens dead and the structural problems that have dogged the viaduct for decades.
Despite dwindling expectations of finding survivors, rescue workers said they had not given up hope as they pressed on with the dangerous operation to search through the unstable mountains of debris.
“Is there anyone there? Is there anyone there?” one firefighter shouted into a cavity dug out of the piles of concrete and twisted metal, in a video published by the emergency services.
Cranes and bulldozers are working to help clear the site as hundreds of rescuers try to cut up and remove the biggest slabs of fallen bridge.