ROME, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Deaths have been reported after a motorway bridge partially collapsed in the northwest Italian city of Genoa, local media reported on Tuesday.

Ansa news agency quoted rescue sources as saying that several crushed vehicles are under the rubble with dead people inside. Around 10 vehicles are involved after a large section of the Morandi Bridge upon which the A10 motorway runs gave way amid torrential rain, the sources said.

But another local news agency Adnkronos reported earlier dozens of dead among those who fell from the viaduct.

Emergency crews from fire brigade, Civil Protection agency, and police were on the scene, along with ambulances from the nearest hospitals.

The incident concerned a viaduct connecting the highway A10 to the western part of the city, in a populous neighbourhood called Sampierdarena.

The partial collapse involved a portion of about 100 meters, and might be due to a structural failure of the high bridge, according to reports citing civil protection and firefighter sources.

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