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Hopes were fading on Wednesday night of finding any more survivors in the tangled wreckage of the motorway bridge that collapsed in Genoa. Search and rescue operations continued even though fire fighters and police were not hearing any cries for help from within the mountains of smashed concrete slabs, twisted steel and crushed cars. “We are no longer hearing any audible signs of life, but we are not going to stop searching,” Luciano Roncalli, a fire service officer, told the The Telegraph. “Due to the huge slabs of cement there is still a chance of surviving in a big void inside the rubble, so just because we cannot hear anything doesn’t mean there is no hope.” Richard Bordoni, a search and rescue specialist, said: “We won’t stop until we’ve removed every last bit of cement.” Emergency officials used tall hydraulic cranes to carefully lift away large chunks of reinforced cement, before trying to detect signs of life with sniffer dogs, search cameras and listening devices. “Everyone in Genoa knew the bridge was in bad condition, but as usual it is we citizens who pay the price for these national disgraces,” said Barbara Logrippo, 43, who lives in the area. As Italians asked how such a large and crucial transport structure could simply disintegrate without warning, details emerged of the people who lost their lives in the disaster. Stella Boccia, 24, from Monte San Savino near Arezzo Among the victims were a young Italian couple and their seven-year-old son. Roberto Robbiano, his wife Ersilia Piccinino and their son Samuele all died when their car plummeted 150ft to the ground after a 260ft section of the Morandi bridge suddenly disintegrated in a thunderstorm on Tuesday. The family were heading off on holiday to Sardinia when the bridge, which spans a broad valley of apartment blocks, warehouses and railway lines, collapsed. Firefighters found Samuele’s favourite football, decorated with images of Spiderman, inside the smashed remains of their car, along with a bucket, a spade and a beach umbrella that was still wrapped in cellophane. The victims also included Stella Boccia, 24, from Tuscany, and her boyfriend Carlos Jesus Truillo, 23, originally from the Dominican Republic. “A piece of our hearts lies beneath the rubble of the bridge in Genoa,” Ms Boccia’s parents wrote on Facebook. The couple were returning from a holiday. The disaster claimed the lives of another couple – Marta Danisi, 29, a nurse, and her boyfriend Alberto Fanfani, 32, an anaesthetist from Florence. They were due to get married next year. Marta Danisi and fiance Alberto Fanfani The dead also included Luigi Matti Altadonna, 35, who was married with four children and was going to work when the bridge disintegrated beneath his vehicle. His colleague, Gianluca Ardini, 29, survived. Elisa Bozzo, 34, was travelling in her black Opel across the bridge when she too plummeted into the void and lost her life. Elisa Bozzo, 34, was reportedly travelling in a black Opel car when she died in the Genoa bridge collapse Credit: Facebook Three people of Chilean background died – Juan Carlos Pastenes, 64, a chef, his wife, Nora Rivera, and Juan Figueroa, 60, who had lived in Italy for decades. Four young French people on their way to a techno music festival in Italy were also killed, the French foreign ministry said. It did not name them but French media said they were three friends from the Toulouse region and another person they had picked up along the way. French and Italian media named the dead as Melissa Artus, 21, her friend Axelle Place, 19, a young man believed to be Melissa's boyfriend named Nathan Gusman, 20, and William Pouzadoux 22. Le Parisien newspaper said Mr Pouzadoux's sister had confirmed that her brother was one of the victims. The bodies of the two women and two men were found in a car among the debris of the collapsed bridge. Three national identity cards found in the vehicle helped investigators identify them, Le Parisien said. Nathan Gusman with Melissa Artus, and Axelle Place, right, were headed to a music festival in Sardinia An ear-ring and a bracelet recovered in the car were also used to help identify the victims, Italy's La Stampa daily said. The driver of the car was a young woman from Lautrec, a small town near Toulouse, who was travelling with two friends from Toulouse, according to reports. Melissa on August 2 posted a message on Facebook asking for someone to accompany them to the festival as someone had dropped out of their group. They are believed to have picked up Mr Pouzadoux, who responded to the ad, in Montpellier before continuing across the border into Italy. A French-registered lorry was also found in the debris in which one body was found. Two identity cards were found in the truck. They belonged to two Romanian employees of the French removals firm Alba, reports said. "We remain in contact with the Italian authorities in order to determine the possible presence of more French nationals among the victims," the foreign ministry in Paris said. A fruit and vegetable truck driver who was returning from France to Italy also died. Gennaro Sarnataro, 43, was from Naples. Juan Carlos Pastenes, and his wife Nora Rivera Two employees of a waste management company, who were working in the valley beneath the bridge when it collapsed, were also killed. They were named as Bruno Casagrande, 57, and Mirco Vinci, 30. They were doing shift work in place of regular workers who had gone away on their summer holidays. “They had only just started their contracts,” said Tiziana Merlino, the director of the waste management company AMIU. With Genoa and the surrounding Liguria region in shock, the mayor of the port city declared two days of mourning, starting today. Andrea Cerulli, 48, an avid fan of the local football team, was also killed in the tragedy. His girlfriend and son had gone on holiday but he had stayed behind in Genoa to work. He was killed as he drove to work. Three children were among the dead, according to the Italian media. Among them was an unnamed boy from Florence in Tuscany. Dario Nardella, the mayor of Florence, offered his condolences to the boy’s family but did not say if any of his relatives were among the victims.
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