a bus falls from a bridge and catches fire, at least twenty-one dead

A bus carrying passengers fell from a bridge and then caught fire in Mestre, a town in Venice, Italy, in the early evening of Tuesday, October 3, killing at least twenty-one people.

“A tragedy struck our community this evening”doing “many victims among those present on board the bus which fell”, the mayor of Venice said on FacebookLuigi Brugnaro, describing “an apocalyptic scene”.

“The provisional assessment shows at least twenty-one victims and more than twenty people hospitalized, many of whom are in very serious condition”specified 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”, a spokesperson for the town hall told Agence France-Presse (AFP), but also the French and the Germans, according to the ANSA agency. Three Ukrainians, a Croat, a German and a Frenchman were among the injured, the spokesperson told AFP.

The Venice town hall had reported in an initial report twenty deaths including two children. “The accident also involved some minors”declared the governor of Veneto on Facebook, while “the extraction and reconnaissance operations of the bodies are still in progress”. Around 10 p.m., 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.

The toll could get worse because rescuers were waiting Tuesday evening for the batteries of the hybrid vehicle – electric/methane – to cool so they could move it and ensure that no other victims were in the rubble.

A fall of around ten meters

The accident occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m. 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 just Italian”according to Mr. Zaia.

According to the Venice Fire Department, 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 vehicle would have caught fire after coming into contact with electrical wires, according to Il Corriere. According to the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, “the aggravating factor was the methane supply [du bus]so the fire spread quickly ». “The toll is tragic and dramatic but I fear it will rise”he told the television news of the public channel Rai1.

Asked about the causes of the accident, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, also Minister of Transport, spoke on the Rete4 channel “the hypothesis of driver discomfort”.

Emergency plan

The Venice Health Affairs Directorate immediately triggered the emergency plan for the maximum influx of injured people, recalling doctors on duty and emergency personnel to hospitals in the region, notably in Mestre, Padua and Treviso. 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.

The President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, expressed “his deep condolences”. “I am in contact with Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and Minister [des transports], Matteo Salvini, to follow the news of this tragedy »she wrote in a press release.

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 in French and in Italian. 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”.

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 kilometers east of Naples. Thirty-eight people died instantly, two succumbed to their injuries.