A bridge in the northwest Italian city of Genoa collapsed on Tuesday, killing 26 people, injuring 15 others, and sending cars crashing from heights of more than 150 feet on to rail tracks, buildings, and a river. The catastrophic scene unfolded just as heavy rains pummelled the Italian city. It’s unclear what led to the bridge’s collapse, but Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo has vowed to get to the bottom of the issue, including holding those responsible accountable for the disaster.

This is about as frightening a scene as you can imagine. As expected, reports are still coming in about the incident, but it appears that investigations on why the bridge collapsed will go on for a few more days. There have been conflicting reports from witnesses, including one who said that lightning struck the bridge moments before one of its huge supporting towers crashed down during the torrential downpour. Engineers, on the other hand, said that lightning is unlikely to be the reason and that it’s still too early to determine the cause of the collapse.

What’s clear at this point is that the disaster brought about unspeakable heartbreak to a lot of people. So far, multiple reports say that 26 people have died from the accident, including a child, according to Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s civil defense agency. 15 more people are reportedly injured, though those numbers are expected to climb as rescue workers continue searching for people trapped in the rubble.

For now, rescue operations take precedence over everything else. Genoa police spokesperson Alessandra Bucci made that clear in an interview with Reuters. "We are continuing with the rescue operations because we think there are other people alive under the rubble,” Bucci said. "We have extracted people from the rubble, and now we are focusing on assisting the people, and later, we will understand what caused the collapse of the bridge."

It’s hard to put into words our reactions upon watching videos of the horrific disaster happen in real-time. It’s not something you wish to happen to anybody, let alone innocent people who were going about their day without any knowledge of the hand that they were about to be dealt. Hopefully, the rescue operations find more injured people than dead ones. But to those who have perished, we send our thoughts and prayers to their families and friends. This kind of tragedy could’ve been avoided, and those who died didn’t have to lose their lives.