A bus crash near Venice kills 21 people, including Ukrainian tourists
A bus carrying foreign tourists, including Ukrainians, crashed near the Italian city of Venice on Tuesday when it fell off an elevated highway, killing at least 21 people and injuring at least 15 others.
Euronews news
VENICE (AP) — Firefighters worked until dawn Wednesday to clear the wreckage of a bus that crashed in a neighborhood of Venice, Italy, across the lagoon from its historic center. 21 people were killed and at least 15 were injured, mostly foreign tourists returning to Venice from a nearby campsite.
According to the Venice Prefecture, the victims included at least four Ukrainians and one German citizen. The injured, including five in serious condition, included French, Spanish and Croatian nationals, local officials said.
At least two of the dead were children, Venice prefect Michele Di Bari said, adding that many of those involved in the accident were “young.”
The bus – which was new and electric – was carrying foreign tourists when it fell off an elevated road and caught fire on Tuesday evening. The shuttle connected Piazzale Roma in Venice’s historic center with the Hu campsite in Marghera, another Venice district next to Mestre.
The Italian driver Alberto Rizzotto was killed in the accident. The Venice public prosecutor’s office is investigating whether he felt ill during the journey. He was an experienced driver, said Venice city councilor Renato Boraso.
Godstime Erheneden was in his apartment near the scene of the accident when he heard a crash outside. He rushed outside and was among the first to board the bus.
“When we walked in we immediately saw the driver. He was dead. I carried a woman on my shoulders, then a man,” Erheneden told the Venetian daily il Gazzettino.
“The woman screamed, ‘My daughter, my daughter,’ and I went back inside. I saw this girl who must have been two years old. I have a son who is 1 year and 10 months old and they are both the same size. I felt like I was holding my son in my arms. It was terrible. I don’t know if she survived. I thought she was alive, but when the rescuers arrived, they immediately took her away,” said Erheneden.
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the scene was “apocalyptic” and declared the city in mourning.
In 2017, 16 people on a bus carrying Hungarian students died in an accident near the northern city of Verona. And in 2013, one of Italy’s worst car accidents killed 40 people when a bus fell off a viaduct near the southern town of Avellino.