Istalia

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Breaking News: Tragedy in Gelamia!

Bridge of Liberation collapses during violent storm

Rescue teams rushing to the site of the disaster speak of an apocalyptic scene: many victims feared

28 August 5629

GELAMIA - A tragedy struck the city of Gelamia yesterday, when one of the city's main road bridges, the Bridge of Liberation, suddenly collapsed at 11:28 am while a violent storm was hitting the area. Rescue operations began immediately, with the Fire Department, emergency teams and volunteers from the National Civil Protection busy searching for survivors among the rubble. At the moment, an official number of victims has not yet been released, but the scene that the rescue teams found in front of them upon their arrival appeared apocalyptic: the pillar 2 and 250 meters of span of the bridge collapsed onto the neighborhood below, causing dozens of vehicles to fall into the void, crushed among the rubble that ruined the neighborhood below, involving some industrial workshops, warehouses and two residential building, one under renovation. The human toll is therefore feared to be extremely serious.

The citizens' anguish is already turning into anger fueled by the fact that the bridge, a modern cable-stayed reinforced concrete structure, was inaugurated just three years ago to cross the deep canyon of the Spessia River over the Marenzano, Di Cegli and Spessia districtrs, a particularly treacherous natural obstacle on the steep slopes of the Alkhayl on which the city, squeezed between the mountains and the sea, develops. For some time, however, rumors and reports had been circulating about what seemed to be an anomalous deterioration of the structure, with citizens and technicians who had expressed concerns about the rapid decay of the bridge, which seemed "aging" too quickly.

Milena Guicciardini, sister of Elena Guicciardini, the first confirmed victim, hit by debris while leaving her appartment in the residential building involved in the collapse, expressed with anger and tears the pain of an entire community:

We want clarity and justice! One can't die like this... every time I came to visit my sister... I looked up at the bridge and... and day after day... it seemed more and more dilapidated... someone will have to give us explanations... someone... they have to tell me why... why did my sister die? This disaster could have been avoided!

Simone De Benedetti, the projet manager of the renovation of the other residential building, rushed over the scene, and almost falling into shock, said few hours after the collapse:

Thirteen people of my team are missing, my colleague Mamoun… Mamoun Haber, the site surveyor… was within the building… no one can find him either… I could have been there under the rubbles… I was at the company's offices… that bridge… just a look… any engineer with a bit of expertise could have tell what state the bridge already was in!

The city authorities, the mayor of Gelamia was seen at the site of the disaster just two hours after the collapse, have guaranteed that in-depth investigations will be launched to clarify the causes of the tragedy. However, according to internal sources, the Gelamia Prosecutor's Office is already ready to include the entire municipal council in the register of suspects, along with the top management and numerous operative executives of the company that built the bridge, COSTEDIL Spa, one of the largest companies in the Feranese area with headquarters in Magliano.

According to the Gazzetta del Nord-Ovest, the most important newspaper in the city, the judiciary was already investigating possible cases of corruption related to public procurement and alleged less than transparent relationships between politics and businesses. In recent years, the Gazzetta has conducted numerous journalistic investigations in the city, a stronghold of the Patriotic Front since the Liberation, which have brought to light several clues and reports on alleged favoritism and irregularities in the management of public contracts.
While rescue operations continue the city's grief mixes with anger for a disaster that perhaps could have been avoided.