39 killed and five children are pulled out alive after coach carrying tourists plunges 100ft off highway

At least 38 tourists including several children died last night after a coach plunged 100ft off a highway into a ravine in Italy.

Around 50 Italians were on board the bus when it ripped through a guardrail after slamming into cars that had been slowed down by traffic.


As it fell, the bus tore away whole sections of concrete barriers which lay in large chunks in a clearing in a wooded area where the coach landed.

One of the first firefighters to arrive described horrific scenes of children weeping and crying out from inside the wreckage and their desperate parents calling out to them in the dark.

Emilio Matarazzo said: 'All I saw were shadows, sheets of metal and broken glass. And then I heard the cries. That was what made my blood run cold.'

Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted metal looking for survivors inside the mangled bus, stopping occasionally in silence to listen for any cries for help, even as the bodies were put into coffins to be taken to a morgue.

Five young children were pulled to safety, but several others are thought to have been killed. The bus driver was also believed to be among the dead.

Source: Daily Mail