ROME : A bus carrying Ukrainian refugees overturned on a major highway in northern Italy at dawn on Sunday, killing a young mother, Italian firefighters and news reports said.
Italian state TV said there were also five people injured, but none of the injuries was serious, in the crash on the A14 highway near Forli’, a town in the Emilia-Romagna region in northeastern Italy. It said the rest of those aboard were safely evacuated.
The bus landed on its side on a grassy slope just beyond a highway guardrail and near a farm field. Firefighters used two cranes in an operation to set the bus upright and remove it after helping the survivors to get out of the bus.
The cause of the crash was under investigation. Highway Police official Andrea Biagioli said there were no skid marks.
Italy’s Interior Ministry said the bus had set out from Ukraine and was heading south to Pescara, an Adriatic port city, when it overturned. The passengers were taken to a nearby police barracks for initial assistance, and would later resume their journey, the ministry said.
