At least 21 dead after coach plunges off bridge in Italy

At least 21 people have been killed after a passenger bus plunged from a overpass near Venice in an “apocalyptic” accident, according to Italian authorities.

The vehicle, which was carrying people returning from work, was travelling from Venice to Marghera when the shocking accident took place at the overpass in Mestre on Tuesday evening.

“It completely went off the road, it flew off the bridge. It was a bus; it was a highway. We are in mourning,” Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Italy’s national broadcaster RAI.

Morris Ceron, general director of the municipality of Venice, told RAI that children were among the victims of the crash and that the bus was believed to have foreigners aboard as it headed towards a campsite.

Luca Zaia, president of Italy’s Veneto region, called the bus crash “a tragedy of enormous proportions” and also confirmed that “the victims and injured are of various nationalities, not just Italians.”

He said that more than 20 ambulances had been used at the scene and also the Treviso air ambulance. The injured were taken to hospitals in Mestre, Mirano, Padua and Treviso.