According to prefect of Venice Michele Di Bari, among those killed in a bus accident that occurred on October 3 in the evening in the Mestre area of Venice, according to preliminary data, five citizens of Ukraine, European Pravda said with reference to the publication La Repubblica.

It is known that in addition to the five Ukrainians, one German and the driver of the vehicle, originally from Italy, were killed.

It is reported that two more seriously injured are citizens of Ukraine. This is a 50-year-old woman with serious burns and injuries to various parts of the body and a four-year-old girl whose life is in danger. The child was taken to Padua in intensive care.

The official number of victims of the bus accident is 21 dead and 15 injured, five of whom are in serious condition. Patients were distributed to hospitals in Mestre, Dolo, Mirano, Treviso and Padova.

There were 40 tourists, many foreigners, on the bus that flew off the overpass. They were going to a campsite in Marghera.

Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko, in a commentary to Interfax-Ukraine, confirmed the information about casualties among Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Rome and the Consulate General in Milan are already dealing with a traffic accident that occurred at night on the A4 highway near Venice, Nikolenko said.

"According to available information, a tourist bus with 40 passengers fell off an overpass and fell from a height of about 30 meters. So far, five Ukrainians are known to have died, three more were injured. Now they are receiving the necessary medical care in the hospital," Nikolenko said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Ukrainian consuls interact with Italian law enforcement officers in the context of clarifying all the circumstances of the accident, monitor the treatment of our citizens and establish contact with relatives.

According to some reports, the bus was running on methane, fell on power lines and caught fire.

The State Traffic Inspectorate is conducting investigative actions: checking the trajectory of the fall and the condition of the road surface. According to preliminary data, there are no traces of braking on the asphalt.

For reasons as yet unknown, the bus crashed on Tuesday 3 October shortly before 20.00, falling from a height of approximately 15 metres.