GENOA, Italy, Aug. 15 -- A day after suffering its major structural disaster in decades, the northwestern Italian city of Genoa still struggled to cope with reality.

An eerie atmosphere lingered around the scene of the disaster, less than three kilometres away from the populous Sampierdarena district.

This was where the mid-section of a major viaduct -- called "Morandi Bridge" -- suddenly crashed down around noon on Tuesday, dropping tonnes of concrete debris, and sending dozens of vehicles falling 45 meters to the ground.

The whole area remained cordoned off by police, while hundreds of rescue officers kept working non-stop to try to reach possible survivors.

The provisional death toll of the incident was 39 as of late Wednesday. Yet, the civil protection agency warned the figure would be "constantly updated" until all operations were concluded.

In a day traditionally devoted to family trips and vacation -- Aug. 15 being a major summer holiday in Italy -- the people of Genoa could not think of anything but what happened.

"I feel like a miraculous survivor ... indeed we all are, because we have always been driving several times a day on that bridge," taxi driver Giuliano Fiorella told Xinhua, referring to himself and his colleagues.

The man was driving in the tunnel that led to the west part of the bridge on Tuesday, with a passenger on board heading to Milan in Lombardy.

He reached the end of the tunnel at 11:54 a.m.

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