They spent hours extracting bodies from the charred remains of the bus, which was finally removed from the site in the early hours of Wednesday.“Among the difficulties was the fact that the bus was electric so it had batteries. Unfortunately, they caught fire on impact,” said Luongo.Luca Zaia, the governor of the Venice region, confirmed the official death toll was 21, “including a one-year-old child and a teenager”.
Firefighters said the bus caught fire after careering off an overpass straddling a railway line and linking the mainland Mestre and Marghera districts of Venice in northern Italy. According to Corriere della Sera newspaper, 19 people died at the scene, with the remaining two dying in hospital. French President Emmanuel Macron and European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen offered their condolences.