2023-10-04 02:08:57
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro described “an apocalyptic scene”. At least 21 people died and around 20 others were injured Tuesday evening in Venice when a bus carrying tourists, including Ukrainians, French and Germans, fell off a bridge and caught fire, according to officials. authorities of this world-famous city in northeastern 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”.
At least one Frenchman among the injured
Among the victims are “Ukrainian tourists”, a town hall spokesperson told AFP, but also Germans and French, according to the Ansa agency. Three Ukrainians, a Croat, a German and a Frenchman were among the injured, the spokesperson told AFP. “The accident also involved some minors,” according to the governor of Veneto on Facebook.
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 Il Corriere della Sera, the 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.
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”.
Methane power
The identification of the deceased was still in progress during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday and the firefighters were working with the carcass of the charred bus, overturned on the roof, noted an AFP photographer on 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.
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. 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.
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 Zaia.
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.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni immediately expressed “her deep condolences”. “I am in contact with Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and Minister (of Transport) 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”.
#Bus #falls #bridge #Venice #dead