MILAN • A highway bridge collapsed Tuesday in the Italian city of Genoa during a violent storm, sending dozens of vehicles tumbling nearly 150 feet into a heap of rubble. Authorities said at least 22 people were killed, although some were found alive in the debris.

A huge section of the Morandi Bridge fell at midday over an industrial zone, sending tons of twisted steel and concrete onto warehouses below. Photos from the Italian news agency ANSA showed a massive gap between two sections of the bridge.

The disaster raised questions about the integrity of Italy’s aging bridges.

Up to 35 cars and at least three trucks were on the 260-foot section of the span that collapsed, said Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency.

Hundreds of firefighters and emergency officials were searching for survivors in the rubble with heavy equipment. At least four people were pulled alive from vehicles under the bridge, ANSA reported.

Video of the collapse captured a man screaming: “Oh, God! Oh, God!”

Other images showed a green truck that had stopped on the bridge just short of the edge and the upended tires of a tractor trailer in the rubble.

There was confusion over the death toll, which changed several times during the day.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte went to the site and said 22 people were killed and 16 were injured, and he feared the death toll may rise in what he called “an immense tragedy.”

“It is shocking to see the twisted metal and the bridge collapsed with victims who were extracted,” Conte told RAI state TV.

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.”

Borrelli, the civil protection chief, told a news conference in Rome that the dead appeared to all have been in vehicles that fell.

One man who was standing under the bridge in front of his truck when the span collapsed called it “a miracle” that he survived. The middle-aged man, who did not give his name, said the shockwave sent him flying over 33 feet into a wall, injuring his right shoulder and hip.

“I was in front of the truck and flew away, like everything else. Yes, I think it’s a miracle. I don’t know what to say. I’m out of words,” he said, walking away from the site.

The disaster occurred on a highway that connects Italy to France, and northern cities like Milan to the beaches of Liguria. The Morandi Bridge connects the A10 highway that goes toward the French Riviera and the A7 highway that continues north toward Milan. Inaugurated in 1967, it is just over .6 miles long.

Borrelli said highway engineers were checking other parts of the bridge, and that some nearby areas were evacuated as a precaution. He said they were still trying to figure out the cause of the collapse.

“You can see there are very big portions of the bridge (that collapsed). We need to remove all of the rubble to ascertain that all of the people have been reached,” he said. More than 300 rescue workers and canine crews were on the scene.

The collapse came on the eve of the Italian summer holiday of Ferragosto, which marks the religious feast of the Assumption of Mary. It’s the high point of the season, when most businesses are closed and Italians head to the beaches or the mountains.

Cars are blocked on the Morandi highway bridge after a section of it collapsed in Genoa, northern Italy, on Tuesday. A large section of the bridge collapsed over an industrial area in Genova during a sudden and violent storm, leaving vehicles crushed in rubble below.

the associated press