Venice bus crash: Children among 21 tourists dead as bus plunges from bridge in Italian city of Venice

The bridge fell 15 metres from a bridge after crashing through a barrier

Three children are among 21 tourists and their driver killed when a tour bus they were travelling in plunged from a bridge in the Italian city of Venice.

The bus crashed through a barrier and fell 15m onto the road below while driving over a bridge connecting the district of Meste to Venice around 7.45pm on Tuesday.

The dead children included a baby, while 15 other people were injured, five of them badly.

Emergency crew members work at the scene after a bus accident near Venice. A bus belonging to the transport company La Linea plunged from an overpass between Mestre and Marghera.

Venice authorities have launched a multiple road homicide investigation into the crash. They said the bus, which was only a year old, was equipped with a “black box” that was recovered and will be analysed.

A condolence book for the victims has been opened at Venice’s city hall in Mestre. The local council and the Veneto regional government requested three days of mourning in memory of those who died.

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a "huge tragedy" had taken place. "An apocalyptic scene, there are no words," he said.

Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto region, said it was likely the bus driver had taken ill before the crash.

''Everything points to an illness, but it is prudent not to make hypotheses and to use the conditional tense,” he said. ''Technical failure or other factors are not known to us today.”

Those killed included five Ukrainians, one German and the Italian driver, local authorities said. Tourists from Austria and Spain were also said to be among the injured being treated in five hospitals across the region. One, a three-year-old girl receiving treatment in Padua, sustained serious burns.

Venice prosecutor Bruno Cherchi said the first person to reach the scene had been another bus driver, who used the fire extinguisher from his own vehicle to attempt to put out the flames.

He said an autopsy on the driver’s body would be important for the case and suggested there were signs of braking on the bus before it fell from the overpass.

The prosecutor also said there was a gas leak from lithium batteries, and this was being investigated.

DNA tests would be carried out in circumstances when the identity of victims was unclear, Mr Cherchi said, adding only three or four survivors were able to speak at the moment.

Reports said two German brothers, aged seven and 13, were being treated for broken bones in hospital in nearby Treviso after their parents were killed in the accident.

The bus, which was carrying 39 people, was believed to be powered by electric batteries.

Italian media claimed a gas tank exploded on impact and flames engulfed the vehicle. However, the firm that owns the bus said it was not a hybrid vehicle and was electric-only.

It had apparently been rented by a local company to pick up tourists from the historic centre of Venice and take them to a campsite in the nearby Marghera district.

The 40-year-old driver had worked for the bus company, La Linea, for seven years. In 2018, the collapse of a bridge in Genoa, Italy, saw dozens of vehicles plummet 45m, killing 43 people.