Sixteen Hungarian teens die in Italy coach crash

AT LEAST 16 people died when a coach bringing Hungarian teenagers home from a skiing trip crashed and burst into flames on a northern Italian motorway overnight, authorities said on Saturday.

Emergency workers said that the bus carrying 56 people returning from France, most of them teenagers aged 14-16, as well as several teachers and two drivers, ploughed into a bridge pillar.

“At the moment, there are 16 con- firmed deaths,” saidVerona traffic police chief Girolamo Lacquaniti.

The death toll from the tragedy near Verona at around 11pm could have been much worse had it not been for the bravery and quick thinking of a teacher.

“Those who were seated at the back of the bus saved themselves by smashing the windows amid shouting and panic,” Hungary’s consul in Milan Judit Timaffy said. “A gym teacher rescued lots of those on board by getting back on the bus. He was taken to hospital with serious burns on his back.”

The Italian police said 28 people were injured. Timaffy said two people were seriously injured, one of whom was placed in an artificial coma.

She added that by evening, six remained hospitalised, with two adults still in serious condition.

A huge inferno very quickly engulfed the bus, dramatic pictures released by police showed, completely destroying the interior and reducing the vehicle to a burned-out wreck. Once the blaze was put out emergency workers spent the night doing to establish the death toll.

Some passengers were killed when they were hurled from the coach on impact, but most were found badly charred inside the vehicle after being unable to escape in time.