A violent storm hit the troubled ILVA steel plant in southern Italy, injuring dozens and adding to disruption at the huge site, which is already caught in a widening pollution scandal that could cost billions.

The tornado rolled off the sea and hit the port city of Taranto on Wednesday, bringing down a chimney stack and damaging a warehouse and lighthouse at the factory’s docks, the company said in a statement.

Around 20 workers were injured out of a total of 38 people hurt in Taranto and divers searched for a worker who was unaccounted for after a dockside crane collapsed. Three others on the crane were rescued.

The sudden storm, which television pictures showed filling the sky with a dark grey swirl of cloud that ripped across the harbour, was the latest blow to ILVA, which has become one of the most pressing issues confronting the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Europe’s largest steel plant had already stopped production and faces the threat of permanent closure after magistrates this week seized semi-finished material and steel in a corruption investigation linked to the environmental scandal...

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