Coffins of coronavirus victims were transported on a fleet of army trucks last night after a cemetery in northern Italy was overwhelmed by the death toll.
An army spokesman confirmed today that 15 trucks and 50 soldiers, some of which are pictured, had been deployed to move bodies from Bergamo to neighbouring provinces.
The column of army trucks brought the dead out of Bergamo on Wednesday night in what Italians have called ‘one of the saddest photos in the history of our country’.
The cemetery in Bergamo can no longer cope with the mounting death toll in the city, where more than 4,300 people have been infected and at least 93 have died.
Mortuaries are full and crematorium staff have been handling 24 bodies a day, including the regular drumbeat of non-virus deaths, meaning the bodies of virus victims have had to be dispatched to neighbouring provinces.
Coffins are laid out in a chapel at a cemetery in Bergamo.
Italian soldiers, some of them wearing face masks, gather next to some of their trucks in Bergamo yesterday where local crematorium staff have been handling 24 bodies a day.
Italian soldiers speak to people at the entrance of the cemetery in Bergamo, where bodies have had to be moved out of the city because local undertakers and crematorium staff cannot cope.
Hospital workers prepare coffins at a hospital in Bergamo on Tuesday, in the province of Lombardy which has been the worst-affected region of Italy.
