… As Car crashes into UK parliament barriers, several pedestrians injured***
Rescuers in the north-western Italian city of Genoa continue to search for possible survivors after the dramatic collapse of a motorway bridge.
The interior minister said at least 35 people were killed when dozens of vehicles fell 45m (148ft).
About 16 people were injured in the collapse and the number missing ranges from four to 12.
About 250 firefighters from across Italy are taking part in the search, using sniffer dogs and climbing gear.
“We’re not giving up hope,” fire official Emanuele Giffi told AFP news agency, vowing teams would work “round the clock until the last victim is secured”.
More than 400 people have been evacuated amid fears other parts of the bridge might fall.
The cause of the disaster, which occurred during torrential rain, was not immediately clear but questions had been raised about the safety of the structure.
What we know about Italy bridge collapse
What could have made the bridge collapse?
How the Genoa bridge disaster unfolded
In pictures: Deadly Italy bridge collapse
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has vowed to bring anyone responsible for the collapse to book.
The Morandi Bridge, built in the 1960s, stands on the A10 toll motorway, an important conduit for goods traffic from local ports, which also serves the Italian Riviera and southern coast of France.
What are the challenges facing rescuers?
The BBC’s James Reynolds at the scene says firefighters have been working their way into small cracks in an effort to find anyone who might still be trapped in a vehicle.
Genoa police spokesperson Alessandra Bucci told Reuters it was thought that people were still alive.
Mr Salvini said three children, aged eight, 12 and 13 were among the dead.
The Italian fire service tweeted a video of one person being extracted and carefully lowered on cables from a shattered vehicle, which was suspended in the wreckage of the bridge, high above the ground.
Between 30 and 35 cars and three heavy vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
A huge tower and sections of the bridge collapsed on to railway lines, a river and a warehouse.
The car of Davide Capello, 33, a former goalkeeper for Serie A side Cagliari, came down in the collapse but he survived.
“I was able to get out… I don’t know how my car wasn’t crushed. It seemed like a scene from a film, it was the apocalypse,” he said.
Marcello de Angelis, who is co-ordinating the Italian Red Cross rescue effort, told the BBC that rescuers were treating the disaster like an earthquake.
“There might be the possibility of some niches being created by the rubble itself, with people being protected by the rubble,” he said.
“The units that we have sent we use during earthquakes. So it is the same sort of situation – and also the risk of other collapses, obviously, is the same.”
How did the bridge collapse?
A section measuring about 200 metres fell at around 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT). Police say there was a violent cloudburst at the time.
In the meantime, several persons were injured after a car ploughed into pedestrians and later smashed into security barriers outside the United Kingdom (UK) Parliament in Westminster on Tuesday morning.
The driver of the vehicle has been arrested, informed the Scotland Yard.
The police reached the scene immediately and cordoned off the entire area.
According to eyewitnesses, a car deliberately crashed into the large steel barriers that are erected around the Houses of Parliament complex in Westminster.
Many took to Twitter to report several ambulances and firefighters were present at the scene.
“At 07:37hrs today, a car was in collision with barriers outside the Houses of Parliament. The male driver of the car was detained by officers at the scene. A number of pedestrians have been injured. Officers remain at the scene. We will issue further info when we have it,” said the London Police on Twitter.
Police added, “At this stage, officers do not believe that anybody is in a life-threatening condition. Cordons are in place to assist the investigation. Westminster tube station is closed.”
A spokeswoman later said: “We`re still trying to piece it together.”
Footage on social media showed a handcuffed man being led away by heavily armed police.
Westminster Underground station, close to parliament, was closed and the building was cordoned off. No one was being allowed entry to parliament. As parliament is in recess for summer, most lawmakers are not using the building.
In March 2017, Khalid Masood, 52, killed four people on nearby Westminster Bridge before he stabbed to death an unarmed police officer in the grounds of parliament. He was shot dead at the scene. It was the first of five attacks on Britain last year which police blamed on terrorism.
BBC with additional report from Zee
