Disasters & Accidents

Over 20 dead in bus crash in northern Italy

Rome, Oct 3 (EFE).- At least 21 people died and 20 were injured in a serious bus accident in Mestre, a borough of the city of Venice in northern Italy, according to a preliminary tally by the authorities.

The local prefecture said rescue teams were working at the scene, where numerous ambulances and fire trucks had gathered, and that the death toll was likely to rise.

“We are in the midst of this great tragedy. We have already counted 20 dead, but I think it is a number that is bound to rise. We are helping people,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told a local television station.

The accident occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. local time when the bus plunged off an overpass that crossed the highway and landed after a ten-meter dive between a warehouse and the train tracks, according to initial reports.

Trains between Mestre and Venice’s Santa Lucia station have been suspended, according to local media.

“It is a tragedy of enormous proportions: the balance, provisional, speaks of at least 21 victims and more than 20 people hospitalized in hospitals in Veneto, many of them in very serious condition,” said the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia.

He explained that “the victims and the injured are of different nationalities, not only Italians” and that “the operations of recovery and identification of the bodies are still in progress.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “deepest condolences, both personally and on behalf of the entire government, for the serious accident in Mestre.” EFE

mr/ics

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