Officials have reported that a bus crashed and caught fire near Venice, resulting in the deaths of at least 21 individuals, including children.
The bus crashed through a fence and fell about 15 meters (50 feet) near train tracks in the Mestre district, which is linked to Venice by a bridge.
City prefect Michele Di Bari said that there were five people from Ukraine, one person from Germany, and the driver was from Italy who were killed.
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a very sad and big event had occurred.
“He said on social media that it was a very bad situation, like something out of a bad movie. ”
One person who helped save others talked about a sad event involving young people, mostly kids or teenagers, with only a few adults involved.
Emergency services reported that three children, including a baby, were among the people who died. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said that the number of casualties could increase.
Fifteen people got hurt, and five of them got really hurt. Venice officials said they counted Ukrainians, Austrians, Spaniards, and other tourists from different countries.
The local governor said that in the accident, two teenagers who were 16 years old and two younger kids got hurt.
The bus, which had 39 people onboard, had an accident at approximately 7:45 PM (5:45 PM GMT) on Tuesday. It seems that a local company rented the vehicle to transport tourists from the old part of Venice to a campsite in the nearby Marghera area.
The car is believed to have been a type of vehicle that used both electric batteries and methane gas to run. According to reports from Italy, the gas tank exploded as soon as the bus crashed into something. The leader of the fire brigade, Mauro Longo, said that the batteries also caught fire, which made it difficult to remove the bus.
People who saw what happened said on Rai TV that they could hear people yelling, but the fire was too big for them to do anything about it.
A Gambian worker and another person who worked with him were some of the first to arrive at the place. He said that he saved three or four people from the bus, including a young girl.
It is not clear why the bus went down a hill and crashed through a guard rail and metal barrier. The police are watching videos from surveillance cameras close to where the accident happened.
The driver of the bus was 40 years old and had been working for the bus company for seven years. It was not clear if he had tried to slow down or stop the bus before the accident.
The reports suggest that he might have gotten sick right before the accident happened.
Firefighters finally took away the damaged bus from the place on Wednesday morning.
A place with psychologists and psychiatrists has been opened at a hospital close by to help and support the families of the victims.
Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressed her condolences to the victims and their loved ones.
In 2013, a lot of people died when a big bus crashed on a long bridge close to a small town called Monteforte Irpino in Italy. The bus hit many other cars before it fell off the bridge and into a deep valley.
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