FATAL BUS ACCIDENT NEAR VENICE KILLS 21, INCLUDING UKRAINIANS

Atleast 21 people were killed and 18 injured in a fiery bus crash in a borough of Venice, Italy, across the lagoon from its historic centre, where firefighters and other emergency responders worked into the night trying to extract bodies and squelch the flames.

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The bus was carrying foreign according to a Venice official, when it fell from an elevated street Tuesday in Mestre en route to a camping site near the community of Marghera.

"The people in the bus found themselves surrounded by flames," said Mauro Luongo, commander of the Venice firefighters team. "The scene we found was terrible. It took about one hour to extract some of the bodies."

Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the crash scene was "apocalyptic" and declared the city in a state of mourning.

Four of the injured were in serious condition following the accident, which happened on the mainland just 9 km northwest of the old city of Venice, said Renato Boraso, a Venice city official. Two of the dead were children, Venice prefect Michele Di Bari said. The injured were transferred to five different hospitals in the region.