by Alessandra Cardone

ROME, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were rescued alive from cars after a major motorway bridge partially collapsed in the northwest Italian city of Genoa on Tuesday morning, a firefighter official coordinating the intervention told state-run RAI News TV channel.

According to the official, the rescued have no life threatening injures.

Heavy vehicles are now needed on the scene to move the huge pieces of bridge collapsed," Fire Corp engineer Amalia Tedeschi told RAI.

The incident concerned a viaduct called "Morandi Bridge", connecting the highway A10 to the west part of the city, near a populous neighborhood called Sampierdarena.

It was believed that at least 20 vehicles, including cars and trucks, were passing through the section of the bridge when collapse happened.

Ansa news agency quoted rescue sources as saying that several crushed vehicles are under the rubble with dead people inside.

Emergency crews also feared casualties, Italian firefighters said.

Although no victims were yet reported, but several people might be trapped under rubble, firefighters from Genoa provincial headquarters told Xinhua.

Built in the 1960s, the Morandi Bridge is a major connection for the port city of Genoa. The collapse affected a portion of about 100 meters, and might be due to a structural failure, Ansa news agency reported citing civil protection and firefighter sources.

Beside emergency crews from Fire Corp, Civil Protection, and police, dog units were operating on the scene to help locate any victim trapped in the vehicles involved, Genoa firefighters told Xinhua.

When the disaster occurred, the city of Genoa was being lashed by heavy rain.

Italian government has called the collapse as "an immense tragedy".