​At least 21 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a bus fell from an overpass near Venice in northern Italy, the city’s mayor said, quoted by Italian daily La Repubblica, Reuters reported.

01:20Among the victims are “Ukrainian tourists”, the spokesperson of the city hall in Venice told AFP, as well as Germans and French, reports the agency ANSA.

Among the injured are three Ukrainians, one Croat, one German, and one French, a spokesman for the mayor’s office told AFP.

01:00 According to Corriere del Veneto, the bus, which ran on methane, was loaded with tourists and a group of Ukrainians was on board.

According to the prefecture, the death toll currently stands at 21, including two children and a teenager, and 15 injured, some of them in a very serious condition.

The dynamics of the accident have not yet been established: the bus left the road on the Vempa overpass, broke through the protective parapet and flew into the void near the railway, flying about 30 meters. The methane-fueled vehicle reportedly caught fire after touching electrical cables.

“Too many dead, too many”

At least 40 ambulances were dispatched to the scene.

“Too many dead, too many.” These were the first words of the firefighter who left the operation area for a few minutes, News.ro reports.

The bus that fell off the footbridge was on duty on behalf of a local campsite, probably Hu of Marghera.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella called Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro to express his condolences.

00:50IAE: So far there is no information that Romanians are among the victims

Romanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Radu Filip told Agerpres on Tuesday evening that there is no information yet on the presence of Romanian citizens among the victims of the accident in Italy. “So far, we have no information about the presence of Romanian citizens among the victims of the accident. Also, until now, not a single request for consular assistance has been registered at the level of the diplomatic mission,” he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that representatives of the consular institution maintain contacts with the local authorities of Italy and are ready to provide consular assistance depending on requests.

00:02Ukrainian citizens are among the victims, the Kyiv embassy in Rome confirmed

The Embassy of Ukraine in Italy confirms the presence of Ukrainian victims in the tragedy in Mestre. “Yes, according to the information available to us, documents have been found with some citizens of Ukraine,” sources in the diplomatic mission told the Italian agency ANSA.

23:28“This is a tragedy of enormous proportions: the preliminary balance says at least 21 victims and more than 20 people hospitalized in Veneto hospitals, many of them in a very serious condition. Unfortunately, several minors were also involved in the accident,” said the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, according to News.ro. He also said that the victims were of different nationalities, not just Italians.

As tgcom24 reports, the bus was carrying a group of Eastern European tourists who were returning to Marghera after a stay in Venice.

Operations to recover and identify the bodies are still ongoing, the president of the Veneto region also said.

Among the 21 dead are at least two children, as well as the bus driver.

23:11The carriage was full of tourists. The bus that flew off the pedestrian bridge in Mestre was not following the usual route, as initially stated, but was a vehicle rented for tourists by the campsite in Margherita, which provided a connection between the campsite and Venice, writes tg24.sky.it.

23:07Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Maloni immediately expressed her “deepest condolences”. “I am in contact with the mayor of the city, Luigi Bruniaro, and the (transport) minister, Matteo Salvini, to follow the news of this tragedy,” she said in a statement.

23:03 The balance published by the Italian press at the moment: at least 21 dead, including two children, 12 wounded were taken to the hospital and several are missing.

Italian news agencies and television reported that the bus ran off the road and fell onto railway tracks in the Mestre district, which is connected by a bridge to Venice, but the cause of the accident is still unknown.

“This is an apocalyptic scene. I have no words,” wrote the mayor of Venice, Luigi Bruniaro, in a post on X (Twitter).

For its part, Sky Italia reports that currently 18 lifeless bodies have been removed from the interior of the bus that caught fire, and many more people have been injured.

The authorities have activated a protocol for major emergencies, which provides for the presence of all emergency departments of hospitals, as well as the mobilization of personnel from free shifts.

The worst such accident in Italy to date occurred on July 28, 2013. The bus, carrying about 50 passengers, all from the province of Naples and returning from a three-day trip, fell from a 30-meter viaduct near Avellino, about 50 kilometers east of Naples. 38 people died on the spot, two later from their injuries.