In Northern Italy, the firefighters and police said a bus carrying around 50 citizens of Ukraine overturned on Sunday, March 13, leaving one woman dead and others injured.
According to Video footage shot by emergency services, it showed the bus on its side in a ditch by a road southeast of Bologna following the early morning incident.
🔴 #Bus #Ucraina, #vigilidelfuoco impegnati con due autogru per sollevare il mezzo ribaltato [#13marzo 9:30]#A14 Forlì-Cesena pic.twitter.com/avIfDarEci
— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) March 13, 2022
Moreover, the accident happened on the route between Cesena and Rimini, on the northeastern coast. Pictures posted by the firefighters on Twitter reveal the coach had overturned.
The bus crashed on its side on a grassy slope near a farm field, just beyond a highway railing. Firefighters used two cranes to set the bus upright and remove it.
🔴 #A14 Forli-Cesena, incidente bus cittadini nazionalità #ucraina: accertata al momento una vittima, feriti altri passeggeri, operazioni #vigilidelfuoco in corso [#13marzo 7:50] pic.twitter.com/dtLL72gS72
— Vigili del Fuoco (@emergenzavvf) March 13, 2022
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, the bus had left for Ukraine and was heading south to Pescara, an Adriatic port city, when it overturned.
The passengers, mostly children and women, were believed to be fleeing the nation after Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, a police source said.
Around 35,000 Ukrainian migrants fleeing turmoil in their homeland have entered Italy, most of them through its northeastern border with Slovenia.
However, the police officials told what caused the bus to overturn is under investigation.
According to the reports, the victim was a 32-year-old lady whose two children, aged 5 and 10, suffered bruises in the accident. The woman was crushed under the bus, according to the sources.
Moreover, the sources also said that children and injured persons were taken to a hospital, where they received both psychological and medical care.
The bus, which had set out from western Ukraine, had been on the road for almost 20 hours when it overturned.
The bystanders said, “It could have been (the driver) suddenly falling asleep,″
