Day: October 5, 2023
A tragic accident occurred on Tuesday night in Venice, Italy, when a bus carrying foreign tourists plunged from an elevated road and caught fire, killing 21 people and injuring 15 others. The bus was returning from the historic center of Venice to a nearby campground when it crashed through a guardrail and a fence, falling about 15 meters (50 feet) next to railway tracks.
The victims included at least four Ukrainians, a German citizen and two children, according to Venice prefect Michele Di Bari. The injured, some of whom were in serious condition, included French, Spanish, Austrian and Croatian nationals. The bus driver, an Italian man named Alberto Rizzotto, was also killed in the crash.
The bus was new and electric, and authorities are investigating what caused the accident. One possibility is that the driver felt ill while driving. He was an experienced driver, according to Venice city councilor Renato Boraso. Another possibility is that there was a technical malfunction in the bus or the road infrastructure.
Firefighters worked until dawn on Wednesday to remove the wreckage of the bus, which drew the attention of passersby. Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro declared the city in a state of mourning and wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the scene was “apocalyptic”.
This is not the first time that Italy has witnessed a deadly bus crash involving foreign tourists. In 2017, 16 people on a bus carrying Hungarian students died in an accident near Verona. And in 2013, 40 people were killed when a bus plunged off a viaduct near Avellino.
After three decades, 300,000 Azerbaijanis who were ethnically cleansed in Armenia are still waiting for the EU to break its silence on this crime against humanity. Vagif Sadigov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and head of representation to the European Union (EU), wrote in the social network “X”, Azernews reports.