(Venice) At least 21 people died and around 20 others were injured Tuesday evening in Venice when a bus running on methane fell from a bridge and caught fire, according to authorities in this world-famous northern city -eastern Italy.
“The provisional report shows at least 21 victims and more than 20 people hospitalized, many of whom are in very serious condition,” announced Luca Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region, of which Venice is the capital. deploring “a tragedy of enormous proportions”.
Among the victims are “Ukrainian tourists”, indicated a spokesperson for the town hall, but also Germans, indicated the Italian agency Ansa.
“The accident also involved some miners,” added the governor of Vénisties on Facebook, while “the extraction and recognition operations of the bodies are still in progress”.
Around 10 p.m. (4 p.m. Eastern time), firefighters were still working with the carcass of the charred bus, overturned on the roof, noted an AFP photographer at the scene of the accident, between Mestre and Marghera, two localities on dry land forming part of the municipality of Venice and overlooking its famous lagoon.
The accident occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. local time. The bus was carrying out a shuttle between the historic center of Venice and a campsite located on the mainland on behalf of the public transport company of Venice (ACTV), which explains that “the victims and injured are of several nationalities, not only Italians,” according to Mr. Zaia.
PHOTO MARCO SABADIN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
According to Venice firefighters, the bus “caught fire” after falling from a bridge spanning a railway line between Mestre and Marghera, two towns that are part of the municipality of Venice.
The Venice town hall had reported in an initial report 20 deaths including two children and around ten people hospitalized. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro shortly after the accident described “an apocalyptic scene”.
According to Ansa, the Catholic Patriarch of Venice, Francesso Moraglia, went there to bless the remains of the deceased victims, lined up under white sheets on which bouquets of red flowers had been placed.
Driver discomfort?
The Venice Health Affairs Directorate immediately triggered the emergency plan for maximum influx of injured people, recalling doctors on duty and emergency personnel to hospitals in the region, notably in Mestre, Padua and Treviso.
PHOTO MANUEL SILVESTRI, REUTERS
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni immediately expressed “her deep condolences”. “I am in contact with Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and Minister [des Transports] Matteo Salvini to follow the news of this tragedy,” she said in a statement.
Abroad, French President Emmanuel Macron reacted to X. “Our thoughts this evening are with the Italian people, the families and loved ones of the victims of the terrible tragedy in Venice,” he wrote.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen expressed, in Italian, her “sincere condolences to the families of the victims and the injured”, while the President of the European Council Charles Michel said, also in Italian, “deeply distressed by the terrible accident”.
According to Venice firefighters, the bus “caught fire” after falling from a bridge spanning a railway line between Mestre and Marghera. According to the daily The Corriere della Serathe scheduled bus left its lane on the bridge, smashed through the safety rail and fell from a height of around ten meters near the railway tracks below.
The bus allegedly caught fire after coming into contact with electrical wires, according to Il Corriere. According to Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, “the aggravating factor was the methane fuel (of the vehicle), so the fire spread quickly.” “The toll is tragic and dramatic, but I fear it will rise,” he told the television news on public channel Rai1.
Asked about the causes of the accident, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, also Minister of Transport, mentioned on the Rete4 channel “the hypothesis of the driver feeling unwell”.
The most serious accident of this kind in Italy to date occurred on July 28, 2013. A coach carrying around fifty passengers, all from the province of Naples and returning from a three-day excursion, fell a viaduct of around thirty meters near Avellino, around fifty km east of Naples. Thirty-eight people died instantly, two died from their injuries.