Deadly bus crash in Italy kills 30

RESCUERS are saying that at least 24 bodies have been pulled out of the mangled wreckage of a tour bus that plunged dozens meters off a major highway in southe Italy after slamming into several cars.

The bus landed in a ravine.

``Looking down from the overpass, the scene of the tragedy: some 30 bodies covered by white sheets, lined up along the roadside,'' Cesare Abbate of Italy's ANSA news agency said.

Cars that had been hit by the coach lay piled up on the flyover, he added.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted firefighters among the rescuers as also saying at least 11 people were injured in the crash night on the 116 autostrada near Avellino, some 160 miles south of Rome.

Italian TV quoted people at the scene as saying about 49 people were on the bus, which was reportedly filled with Italian pilgrims retuing from an excursion elsewhere in the south.

Highway police said the bus crashed into cars that had been slowed by heavy traffic.

A police spokesman said the total number of victims had not yet been confirmed. \"We are still pulling people from the vehicle. Our priority now is to free the wounded.\"

Several people are understood to have been thrown from the falling bus.

Among the dozens of injured are many children, reports the local newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Fire authorities report the rescue operation is still underway.

\"The situation is dramatic,\" he said, adding that the bus had struck several other vehicles before going over the embankment and slamming into heavy undergrowth.

The Naples-Bari highway has been closed.

The driver is understood to be among the dead.

Witnesses said it looked as if the coach might have had brake problems.

Others said it was not clear whether the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel or whether the coach had burst a tyre on the fast-moving road.

Firemen working by the light of lamps set up around the coach, which lay on its side, said rescue efforts were being hampered by access problems.