The bus veered off the road and fell close to railway lines in the district of Mestre, which is connected to Venice by a bridge. The cause of the accident was still unclear.<\/p>\n
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The bus crash near Venice.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Facebook Luigi Brugnaro<\/cite><\/p>\n Sky Italia television reported that 18 bodies had so far been dragged from the wreckage after the vehicle fell 15 metres onto electricity lines and caught fire at around 7.45pm local time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an apocalyptic scene. I am speechless,\u201d Brugnaro posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are at least 20 dead, but some people are still trapped in the wreckage,\u201d he later told Italian state television channel Rai News24.<\/p>\n Italy has suffered a number of deadly bus crashes in recent years.<\/p>\n In 2017, 16 people on board a bus carrying Hungarian students died in an accident near the northern city of Verona, while in 2013, 40 people died when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in one of the country\u2019s worst road accidents.<\/p>\n Venice\u2019s prefecture, a branch of the interior ministry, was quoted by Italian news agency ANSA as saying that there were 21 deaths, 12 injured and four or five still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n However, with rescue operations ongoing, other news agencies said the death toll could climb higher.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her condolences, saying in a statement that her government\u2019s thoughts were with \u201cthe victims, their families and their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n