A woman has been killed when a bus carrying Ukrainian refugees overturned on a motorway in Italy.
The 32-year-old and her two children, aged 10 and five, were among 22 people onboard escaping the war in Ukraine, according to reports in the Italian press.
The bus was making its way from Ukraine to Pescara, a port city in Abruzzo, when it skidded and overturned on a grassy slope beside the A14 motorway at about 6.30am on Sunday.
The woman died at the scene and her children were taken to Bufalini hospital with bruises. Doctors are giving the children psychological support.
No injuries were reported among the other passengers. Emergency services used two mobile cranes to turn the bus upright. The cause of the accident is not yet known.
As of Saturday almost 35,000 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in Italy, most of them women and children.
Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, told Corriere della Sera on Friday that most of the people were staying with family and friends. She said 283 properties seized from the mafia had been identified to accommodate people over the longer term.
Refugees will be given access to healthcare, children will be schooled and adults given permits to work. Italy is managing the process as part of the EU’s temporary protection directive, an instrument drawn up in 2001 and activated this month, which allows member states to give immediate protection to Ukrainian refugees.
