At least 21 people were killed and 18 injured when a bus carrying mostly international tourists plunged off an overpass in a fiery, “apocalyptic” crash near Venice, Italy on Tuesday night.
The bus – which was on its way to a campsite near the Marghera area – plowed through a barrier on an elevated road and plunged several feet into an area near the railway tracks below in Mestre, where it burst into flames, officials said.
“The people on the bus found themselves surrounded by flames,” said Mauro Luongo, commander of the Venice fire brigade. “The scene we found was horrific. It took about an hour to remove several bodies.”
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, described the horrific accident as an “apocalyptic scene” and declared the city in mourning in a social media post.
“A great tragedy struck our community this evening… There are no words,” he said in a statement sent to X, formerly Twitter.
At least 21 were killed and 18 injured in the crash that happened around 7:45pm in Mestre.REUTERS Two children and a Ukrainian tourist were among the dead, according to local officials. AP
Two children, five Ukrainians, a German and an Italian bus driver were among the dead, Venice superintendent Michele Di Bari said.
The death toll could also rise as at least four of the injured were left in a serious condition, according to local authorities.
The injured were rushed to five different hospitals in the province following the 7:45pm crash.
“The people on the bus found themselves surrounded by flames,” said Mauro Luongo, commander of the Venice fire brigade. AFP via Getty Images The death toll could rise if some of the injured do not survive their injuries, authorities said.REUTERS
It is unclear what caused the bus to crash.
“This is an important tragedy, but it is difficult to understand how it happened,” the governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, told state television RAI. “The bus is new and electric, and the road is not so problematic.”
Emergency crews worked through the night to put out the fire and recover more bodies.
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, described the horrific crash as an “apocalyptic scene.”STRINGER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni offered her condolences to the victims and their loved ones and said she was in close contact with Brugnaro.
A similar tragedy claimed 16 lives in 2016 when a bus carrying Hungarian students crashed near the northern city of Verona.
Three years earlier, 40 people died when a bus plunged from an overpass near the southern town of Avellino in one of the country’s worst road accidents.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
