18 children slightly injured in deadly coach crash in northern Italy

The accident happened on a highway near the city of Ferrara in northern Italy, where 18 children aged between six and 12 were returning from a day at the seaside in a coach which crashed against a car, according to La Nuova Ferrara local newspaper, Xinhua reports.

The two vehicles caught on fire, drawing the attention of three passersby who reportedly managed to smash the coach's windows and pull the children to safety. The driver of the car, a man aged 66, was killed, while the children were only slightly injured.

"I was returning home, alone in my car, when I saw the coach crashing against a car. After a few seconds, everything was on fire," one of the passersby, 20-year-old Gianluca Farinelli, was quoted as saying by La Nuova Ferrara.

"I immediately stopped, and along with another man who was on a scooter, we rushed to the school bus. The children were screaming, terrified, asking for help," he said. The pair along with another driver smashed the coach's windows with their hands and managed to save them.

"I feel sorry for the man in the other car, who unfortunately remained trapped in the metal sheets, in the midst of the flames. Everything happened in a very short time, but it seemed interminable minutes to me," Farinelli added.

Earlier this week, police arrested two transport authority officials and a tour operator on charges of the manslaughter of 39 passengers killed last July when another bus lost its brakes and fell some 30 meters from a bridge overnight in southern Italy.

The bus had been fraudulently reported by the transport authority as having undergone the regular checks of road-worthiness required by the Italian law, an investigation found.