misfortunes
Bus falls from bridge in Venice’s Mestre district: 21 dead
Officials from the Italian State Police are at the scene of the accident near the city of Venice. photo
© -/Italian State Police via AP/dpa
At least 21 people die in a serious bus accident in Venice – in the mainland district of Mestre. The situation is initially very confusing. The bus was probably a shuttle for tourists.
The number of deaths could still rise, it was said in the evening. Around 20 bus passengers were seriously injured. They were taken to hospitals.
As the Ansa news agency reported, there were probably tourists of various nationalities on board, including Germans. An official confirmation of this was initially pending. According to media reports, the bus that crashed was the shuttle bus for a campsite in the mainland district of Marghera.
According to the fire department, the accident occurred around 7:45 p.m., around an hour after sunset.
Shortly after the accident, many emergency services and several ambulances were at the scene of the accident. The railway line between Mestre on the mainland and the famous lagoon city of Venice was interrupted.
Many hypotheses about the cause of the accident
The exact circumstances of the accident are still unclear. The path of the bus is being checked and any clues could provide skid marks or the condition of the road surface, according to police officers on site investigating the matter. There are many hypotheses about the cause of the accident, including the driver falling asleep.
“We were supposed to take the next bus but it didn’t come and then we heard it,” young German tourists who were also at the Hu campsite in Marghera told reporters. “It’s a tragedy.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was dismayed. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families and friends. I am in close contact with Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi to follow the news of this tragedy,” Meloni said, according to a statement.
The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, spoke of a “terrible tragedy” that struck his city in the evening. “An apocalyptic scene, there are no words,” said Brugnaro in a post on the online platform X (formerly Twitter).