Church bells echo out across the valley. Sunrise reveals the horrors of the past day as Genoa awakes from what was not just a bad dream. Regular routines, now frozen in time many narrowly escaping death. The collapse of the Morandi Bridge has been felt by everyone.

EMMANUEL GISSI REGIONAL FIRE CHIEF "We will end the operations whenever we are sure that nobody is under the rubbles anymore. We have rough estimates of the number of vehicles passing on the bridge during the accident so we are basing our design of intervention on those estimates."

Gissi says previous cries for help heard from under the rubble have stopped.

EMMANUEL GISSI REGIONAL FIRE CHIEF  "We have no signs of life currently."

While more than 400 firefighters from across the country along with a thousand other search and rescue personnel refuse to give up, Italians are demanding answers. How could one of Europe's major thoroughfares, linking Italy's Rivera with Southern France, simply collapse.

FRANCESCO BUCCHIERI GENOA RESIDENT "Genoa and all of Italy is incredulous over this tragedy. Today more than ever, the government must shed light on this tragedy and make sure that these deaths are not forgotten and whoever has the responsibilities must pay, they can't always put their head in the sand."

NATALIE CARNEY GENOA "Italy spent 16 billion dollars on its infrastructure in 2006, in line with Germany. However, that figure dropped dramatically following the global economic crisis. While expenditures have increased since then, Italy's transport minister says this disaster sheds light on the dilapidation of Italy's transport sector."

For years, the Morandi Bridge has been managed by the private company Autostrade per l'Italia. Now one of Italy's deputy prime ministers and its transport minister are asking for their resignations.

DANILO TONINELLI ITALIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER "In a modern and civilized country like Italy, we cannot afford to see tragic events like this. It is not acceptable and those who made a mistake will have to pay until the end. The first action we will obviously do is go and check the stipulated convention with Autostrade and revoke this concession and heavily penalize those who I think have not fulfilled the clear contractual obligations regarding maintenance."

The bridge, opened in 1967, had undergone recent repairs. Yet for years, experts had voiced concerns of a tragedy waiting to happen. And now fingers are also pointing at the governing Five Star Movement for describing those warnings as "fairy tales". A criminal investigation has been launched. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has declared a state of emergency in Genoa following the worst bridge collapse in Europe since 2001. Natalie Carney, CGTN, Genoa.