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Officials said the vehicle fell 30 metres (98 feet) onto electricity lines and caught fire at around 7:45 p.m. local time (1745 GMT).
“It’s an apocalyptic scene. I am speechless,” Venice’s Mayor Luigi Brugnaro posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Un’immane tragedia ha colpito questa sera la nostra comunità.
Ho disposto da subito il lutto cittadino, in memoria delle numerose vittime che erano nell’autobus caduto.
Una scena apocalittica, non ci sono parole. pic.twitter.com/APnsQoPMkL— Luigi Brugnaro (@LuigiBrugnaro) October 3, 2023
The head of the local firefighters said the victims so far identified were Ukrainian tourists. Italian news agency ANSA said Germans as well as Ukrainians were among the passengers.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her condolences, saying in a statement that her government’s thoughts were with “the victims, their families and their friends.”
Italy has suffered a number of deadly bus crashes in recent years.
In 2017, 16 people on board a bus carrying Hungarian students died in an accident near the northern city of Verona, while in 2013, 40 people died when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in one of the country’s worst road accidents.
“The bus is totally crushed. The firefighters had difficulty getting a lot of the bodies out,” Di Bari told Sky Italia television. He said 21 people had died, including the Italian driver and two children.
In Italy, the prefect acts as the local representative of the interior ministry.
Venice’s city hall later said 18 people were injured and had been taken to nearby hospitals, with four in a serious condition.
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