Italian toll-road execs told to leave disaster ceremony

Italian President Sergio Mattarella arrives for the ceremony marking the first anniversary of the collapse of a motorway Morandi Bridge that killed 43 people in Genoa, Italy, August 14, 2019. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca

GENOA, Italy (Reuters) - Top executives of Italy's biggest motorway operator made an early exit from a ceremony held on Wednesday to remember victims of a deadly bridge collapse in the port city of Genoa, after some grieving relatives asked for them to leave.

The chief executive and chairman of infrastructure group Atlantia , which operated the bridge that collapsed on Aug. 14 last year, and other company officials left moments before the ceremony, said a source briefed on the event.