Italian authorities looking into Venice tourist bus crash that killed 21

Authorities in Italy are investigating what caused a bus crash near Venice in which 21 people died, including several children.

The "horrific" incident saw the coach, which was carrying foreign tourists returning from a day trip to Venice, fall 30 metres from an overpass and catch fire, said Yahoo News.

The bus, carrying 39 people, had apparently been rented by a local company and is thought to have been a hybrid, powered by electric batteries and methane gas. Local media suggested the gas tank exploded on impact and the batteries caught fire, making it difficult to evacuate the bus.

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The passengers and driver "found themselves surrounded by flames", said Mauro Luongo, commander of the Venice firefighters team. He added that "the scene we found was terrible" and "it took about one hour to extract some of the bodies", reported AP.

According to reports, those who died included four or five Ukrainians, a German tourist and an Italian driver. Emergency services said a baby and a 12-year-old were killed. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a "huge tragedy" had taken place and described an "apocalyptic scene". Flags are flying at half-mast over Venice today, reported The Local.

Although the cause of the accident is "unclear", said Reuters, a city councillor in Venice said one line of enquiry was that the driver, a 40-year-old Italian who was among those killed, had been taken ill before the crash. The councillor added that the death toll could rise because several of those hurt were in a critical condition.

Italy has "suffered a number of deadly bus crashes in recent years", noted Reuters. In 2017, 16 people on board a bus carrying Hungarian students died in an accident near the northern city of Verona, and 40 people died in 2013 when a bus went off a viaduct in southern Italy.