A motorway bridge has collapsed near Genoa in north west Italy, killing 'at least 39 people'. These are the facts so far as the story develops.
A section of the Morandi Bridge on the A10 motorway, which is Italy's main motorway link with France, collapsed on Tuesday morning.
Reports on Thursday afternoon said that at 39 people had died and 15 were injured when a 200 metre section of bridge and the vehicles on it fell approximately 45 metres to the ground. More people are believed to be missing in the rubble.
Video appears to show one of the towers holding up the suspension bridge collapsing in stormy weather and that vehicles and debris fell onto rail tracks.
#14ago #Genova 12:00, crolla parte del ponte Morandi sulla #A10. Le squadre #vigilidelfuoco stanno operando in massa, attivatinteam usar e cinofili pic.twitter.com/gjSJLvjw1K
— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) August 14, 2018
One eyewitness said he saw lightning strike the bridge just after 11:30 local time, followed by a section of the bridge collapsing.
The Guardian quoted the fire service as saying that about 20 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were on the affected section of the bridge, which crossed a railwayline.
An image posted by the regional emergency services shows a lorry at the very end of the surviving section of the bridge.
Background
The Morandi bridge was built in the 1960s, and named after Riccardo Morandi, the architect who designed it. It total length was 1.1km.
It was operated by Autostrade per l'Italia, which has been severely criticised since the disaster.
This story was updated on 16 August 2018.