Bus crash in Venice kills 21 after it fell off a bridge

A bus in the Italian city of Venice crashed off a bridge straddling a railway line in Venice killing at least 21 people including two children, and injuring 12 others on Tuesday.

Firefighters rushed to the scene to assist the victims, according to La Republica.

A City Hall spokesman told AFP: "The crash caused at least 20 deaths, including two children."

Firefighters said the bus caught fire after careering off a bridge linking the Mestre and Marghera districts of the northern Italian city.

"It was a bus rented by some tourists, many foreigners, who were in a campsite in Marghera that crashed from an overpass in Mestre," the Italian newspaper reported. 

"A tragedy has struck our community this evening", mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on Facebook, describing the site of the crash as "an apocalyptic scene".

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her "profound condolences".

"I am in contact with Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and [Transport] Matteo Salvini in order to follow the news of this tragedy," she said in a statement.

Mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro said: "At least twenty dead, a huge tragedy. The bus involved in the accident was going from Venice to Marghera, full of people returning home from work." 

"He went completely off the road and flew off the bridge. It was a bus, it was an expressway. We are in mourning, I have tried to give you the information I have," the mayor was quoted as saying in the Italian paper.

The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi said: "The causes are to be ascertained. In addition to the flight and the notable impact that the vehicle had, it seems that the aggravating factor was the methane fueling with the fire that then developed."

In July 2018, a bus carrying a group of some 50 holidaymakers back to Naples fell off a viaduct near the city killing 40 people in all.