Italy: Authorities investigate cause of Venice bus crash

Italian authorities on Wednesday were investigating a bus crash the previous night that killed 21 people in Venice.

The bus broke through a guardrail and fell off an overpass in the northeastern Italian city. The cause of the crash is still unclear.

What do we know about the crash so far?

Those who died in the crash included at least five Ukrainians and three Germans, Venice Prefect Michele Di Bari said.

Bari said many of the people involved in the accident were "young," and at least two of the dead were children.

Nine people were in critical condition, hospital officials said on Wednesday morning. This included a 3-year-old girl from Ukraine.

Firefighters continued working until dawn on Wednesday to clear the wreckage of the bus.

Before the incident, the vehicle had been carrying tourists from the historic center of Venice to a campsite in nearby Marghera.

Rail traffic to the Venetian Lagoon from the mainland had resumed by early Wednesday, as had campsite shuttle buses.

Local officials said the injured also included French, Spanish, Austrian and Croatian citizens.

Only nine of those killed have been identified so far, according to the head of the northeastern Veneto region, Luca Zaia.

Driver 'may have fallen ill'

The public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the incident.

Among the 21 fatalities was the bus driver, a 40-year-old Italian.

The driver's colleagues said he was known for his professional work.

"We don't understand how this could happen," Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said.

Zaia said authorities' "main hypothesis is that the driver of the bus ... may have fallen ill."

Authorities hope images from surveillance cameras will be able to help determine the cause of the crash. A camera in the bus may have also recorded the events, although it is yet to have been recovered from the wreckage.

Massimo Fiorese, the CEO of bus company Linea Spa, said that pictures show that the vehicle had been braking before it plunged off of the overpass.

"What we know is that there is a fixed camera on the bridge. From what I have seen in the pictures, you can see the bus coming at less than 50 kilometres per hour. You can see the brake lights come on — so it was braking," he said.

sdi/sms (AP, dpa, Reuters, AFP)