ROME, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The unofficial death toll of the Genoa bridge collapse rose to 42 overnight as a state funeral was held in the northwestern Italian city Saturday to honor the victims.
The body of a local sanitation company worker has reportedly been extracted from the rubble while the bodies of a couple and their nine-year-old daughter were extracted overnight from their car, which was crushed by a block of cement.
Saturday's death toll increased from the previous report of 38 remains unofficial because not all the bodies have been formally identified.
Firefighters said on Twitter that "the destroyed carcass" of a car was recovered overnight.
Genoa Prefecture spokeswoman Ornella Sansalone told Xinhua mid-morning that "currently four people are missing, a vehicle has been located in the rubble, and search operations are ongoing."
Sansalone confirmed that a fifth missing person has called in to report himself safe.
With the bridge collapse that killed dozens of people on Tuesday, the country observed a day of national mourning.
The death toll rises were reported ahead of a state funeral at the Trade Fair and Exhibition Center before some 4,000 people, where Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte headed a large delegation of officials.
The funeral was broadcast live across the country. The Italian government declared a national day of mourning on Saturday for the victims.
"The collapse of the Morandi Bridge has caused a gash in the heart of Genoa," the city's archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, who is leading the ceremony, said.
"Genoa is in the gaze of the world, in a strong hug full of emotion and affection," he added, referring to the countless signs of solidarity received from across Italy and abroad.
Since two of the victims were of Islamic faith, the Imam of Genoa also joined the ceremony and led a pray at the end of the catholic funeral.
Hundreds of rescuers have been working around the clock since a section of a much-traveled highway viaduct in the northwestern port city gave way just before noon on Aug. 14, sending several cars and trucks crashing into a railway, a riverbed, and several warehouses 45 meters below.
The Genoa prefecture said in a statement on Friday that 38 bodies had been identified and that 10 injured people were still hospitalized, six of them in critical condition.
As of Friday, the number of missing people in the collapse was reported up to 10-20.
