GENOA, Italy, August 18, 2018 (News Wires) - Italy's president demanded guarantees Saturday that all the nation's roads are safe following the Genoa highway bridge collapse, after he hugged and comforted mourners at a state funeral for many of the dead in the grieving port city. Hours earlier, the toll from Tuesday's bridge collapse rose unofficially to 42 with the discovery of four more bodies. Firefighter Stefano Zanut told Sky TG24 TV they had found the body of a young Italian man and had extracted from tons of broken concrete the crushed car that an Italian couple on vacation with their 9-year-old daughter had been traveling in. Before the state funeral ceremony began in a pavilion on Genoa's fairgrounds, President Sergio Mattarella offered quiet words of comfort for families of the victims. He then took his place with other Italian leaders, including Premier Giuseppe Conte and the transportation and infrastructure minister, in the cavernous hall. Usually quite reserved in demeanor, Mattarella was embraced tightly for a long moment by a woman who was among the grieving. Families of 19 of the dead had their loved ones' coffins brought to the hall for the funeral Mass led by Genoa's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco. Among the coffins were those of two young Albanian Muslim men who lived and worked in Italy. Their remains were blessed at the end of the Catholic service by a Genoa imam, who drew applause when he prayed for God to "protect Italy and all Italians." At other funerals elsewhere in Italy on Friday, angry mourners blamed authorities of negligence and incompetence for failing to keep the bridge safe. During the state funeral, applause rang out and many fought back tears as a prelate read out the first names of some 30 victims who have so far been identified. The mourners also applauded for Italian firefighters, police and volunteers for the civil protection department as they arrived for the funeral. Mattarella toured what's left of the Morandi Bridge, which broke apart in a fierce rainstorm, sending a long stretch of roadbed crashing 45 meters (150 feet) into a dry river bed and near several apartment buildings. Those buildings have been evacuated and local authorities have said they will have to be demolished. Mattarella didn't speak at the funeral, held on a national day of mourning, but after the ceremony ended, he told reporters the bridge collapse "is an unacceptable tragedy." He called the funeral "a moment of grief, shared grief, by all of Italy." He demanded that "responsibility be ascertained with rigor" for the collapse of the bridge, which linked two major highways, one leading to Milan and the other toward France. Prosecutors say they are focusing their probe on possible design flaws or inadequate maintenance of the highway bridge, which was completed in 1967. "I, too, have traveled over this bridge many times, even recently," said Mattarella, demanding that authorities commit to carrying out their "duty to guarantee the safety of our roads." The mood at the state funeral was subdued, although families voiced frustration and anger that public infrastructure isn't safe in Italy. "These are mistakes that keep on repeating. And now, for the umpteenth time, angels have flown into heaven and paid for the mistakes of other human beings, severe mistakes," said one mourner, a local man who would only give his first name, Alessandro. He held a placard that read: "In Italy, we prefer ribbon-cuttings to maintenance" - referring to the country's dilapidated infrastructure. In his homily, the cardinal said the tragedy "gashed the heart of Genoa."
