Italian authorities investigate cause of Venice bus crash

Italian officials have initiated an investigation into the bus disaster near Venice on Wednesday that left at least 21 people, including two children dead, reported CNN.

A representative for the Italian fire department told CNN that investigators were still trying to determine what caused the incident on Tuesday in Mestre.

Notably, the 40-year-old bus driver Alberto Rizzotto was among the deceased, while 18 other persons were injured.

According to Lungo, concerns about the battery slowed down the rescue operation on Tuesday. The Venice public prosecutor has opened an investigation into the crash.

The bus was travelling from Venice to nearby Marghera and was "full of people returning home from work," Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro told state media RAI.

"It completely went off the road, it flew off the bridge. It was a bus; it was a highway. We are in mourning," he said.

Brugnaro described the scene as "apocalyptic" in a post on Facebook. Chief of Staff of the Prefecture of Venice Francesco Martino told CNN that 18 people were also injured in the crash and that authorities were still trying to determine what caused it.

The accident occurred on the overpass of a road that leads from Mestre to Marghera and the A4 motorway. The bus broke through a wall of the overpass, falling between a warehouse and the tracks of the Mestre station below, according to skytg24.

The fire brigade wrote on X: "Following the impact, the vehicle caught fire." (ANI)