Bus crash near Venice kills 21 people

At least 21 people were killed when a passenger bus plunged from a bridge in Mestre, Italy, near Venice on Tuesday, according to Italian authorities speaking to local media, in what has been described as an "apocalyptic scene."

The bus was traveling from Venice to nearby Marghera and was "full of people returning home from work," Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro told state media RAI.

"It completely went off the road, it flew off the bridge. It was a bus; it was a highway. We are in mourning," he added. Brugnaro described the scene as "apocalyptic" in a post on Facebook.

Morris Ceron, general director of the municipality of Venice, told the Italian public broadcaster RAI that children are among the victims of the crash.

Foreigners are also believed to have been aboard the vehicle, which was headed towards a campsite, he added.

"The identification of the bodies is underway," Ceron told RAI.

Luca Zaia, president of Italy's Veneto region, called the bus crash in northern Italy, "a tragedy of enormous proportions."

He said the accident involved some minors and "the victims and injured are of various nationalities, not just Italians."

More than 20 ambulances "were used and the Treviso air ambulance was also called to the scene," he said, adding that the injured were taken to hospitals in "Mestre, Mirano, Padua and Treviso."

Images from the scene showed rescue workers by an overturned and crumpled bus below a bridge.

The Italian fire brigade said rescue operations began at 19:45 p.m. local time (13:45 p.m. ET) in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The country's president and prime minister expressed their condolences in the aftermath of the accident.

"I express my personal and the Government's deepest condolences for the serious accident that occurred in Mestre. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their family and friends," Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.