Bus crash across lagoon from Venice's historic centre kills 21 people, including Ukrainian tourists
Rome (AP): At least 21 people were killed and 18 injured in a fiery bus crash in a borough of Venice, Italy, across the lagoon from its historic centre, where firefighters and other emergency responders worked into the night trying to extract bodies and squelch the flames.
The bus was carrying foreign tourists, including Ukrainians, according to a Venice official, when it fell from an elevated street Tuesday in Mestre en route to a camping site near the community of Marghera.
"The people in the bus found themselves surrounded by flames," said Mauro Luongo, commander of the Venice firefighters team. "The scene we found was terrible. It took about one hour to extract some of the bodies."
Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the crash scene was "apocalyptic" and declared the city in a state of mourning.
Four of the injured were in serious condition following the accident, which happened on the mainland just 9 km northwest of the old city of Venice, said Renato Boraso, a Venice city official. Two of the dead were children, Venice prefect Michele Di Bari said.
The injured were transferred to five different hospitals in the region.
According to local media, the bus fell a few metres before crashing close to Mestre's railway tracks, where it caught fire.
The Veneto region governor, Luca Zaia, told RAI state television that the cause of the accident was still unclear.
"This is an important tragedy, but it's difficult to understand how it happened," he said. "The bus was new and electric, and that street wasn't particularly problematic."
In 2017, 16 people on a bus carrying Hungarian students died in an accident near the northern city of Verona. And in 2013, 40 people were killed in one of Italy's worst vehicle accidents when a bus plunged off a viaduct close to the southern city of Avellino.
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Allahabad High Court summons Bareilly DM, SSP over plea on offering ‘namaz’
Prayagraj (PTI): The Allahabad High Court has directed the district magistrate and senior superintendent of police of Bareilly to appear before it on March 23 after a petitioner alleged denial of permission to perform namaz inside his house.
The order was passed by a two-judge bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Siddhartha Nandan while hearing the plea by Tarik Khan of Bareilly.
On February 12, the court had granted time to counsel for the State to respond to the plea and had issued notices to the DM and SSP of Bareilly.
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In the petition, it is alleged that authorities did not permit the offering of 'namaz' inside the house of Khan on January 16.
Earlier, in another case related to Maranatha Full Gospel Ministries, the court had observed that the petitioner has right to conduct the prayer as per his convenience in his own private premises without any permission from the state government.
"However, if any occasion arises where it has to spill over the public road or public property, in such a situation, this court mandates that the petitioner shall at least intimate the police and take any requisite permission under the law, if so required," the HC had said.
