In Genoa, around ten thousand people attended the central memorial service for the victims of Tuesday's bridge collapse. The ceremony started at 11.30 am in an exhibition hall in the northern Italian city. Besides President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte and other representatives of the right-wing populist government also took part.

However, many relatives of victims of the collapse of the memorial service stayed away. Some prefer private funerals in their hometowns. Others, however, remained demonstratively distant from the service and held their own funeral service. In doing so, they wanted to protest against what they considered a lack of government oversight over the safety of a private-owned bridge.

Even though the funeral service was for all victims, only 18 coffins stood in the exhibition hall. So far, 38 victims of the collapse have been identified, according to current data, the number of deaths has increased to 42, as further victims were recovered on Saturday.

"The collapse of the Morandi Bridge hit Genoa right in the heart, and the pain is deep," says Genoa Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco in his homily. Pope Francis also expressed his sympathy. "We know that any human word, no matter how serious, can do little."

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Bridge collapse: mourning in Genoa

"Genoa is currently seeing the whole world in a big hug of emotion, affection and expectation," says Bagnasco. No jurisdiction can return the lost. In a moving and also interrupted by applause speech Bagnasco makes it clear that the day of national mourning should also be a day of courage for the future. Genoa has lost an "essential artery" with the viaduct, but the city will not give up and fight - as in other serious situations. When a cleric reads the names of the victims identified so far, there is loud applause again.

One of the 18 coffins is small and white, in which lies the corpse of the youngest victim, the eight-year-old Samuele. He was traveling with his parents to the ferry to Sardinia, where the family wanted to go on vacation.

President Mattarella spoke after the memorial service to television reporters about an "unacceptable tragedy". With red eyes, he promised to work for "fast and rigorous investigations leading to convictions."

All over Italy, national mourning is ordered on Saturday. In front of public buildings, the flag blows at half-mast. At the weekend's football matches, players wear black armbands and take a minute's silence. The players of the two Genoese Serie A teams Sampdoria and Genoa came to the funeral, their games were postponed.

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Rescue workers had discovered more casualties in the rubble of the bridge on the night of Saturday. Firefighters discovered the bodies, according to the civil protection in a car that was buried under a concrete block. A spokesman for the fire department said that it was assumed that it was the car of a missing family with three inmates. According to Italian media, this is a couple and their nine-year-old daughter. Officially, however, the number of people killed in the collapse was initially set at 38.

The four-lane Morandi Bridge to the west of Genoa had collapsed on Tuesday during a storm over a length of more than 200 meters.