- Bus was carrying around 50 Italians between Monteforte Irpino and Baiano in the southern region of Campania
- Lost control and slammed into several cars that had slowed down in traffic before smashing through guardrail
- At least 38 bodies were pulled from inside and underneath wreckage before being placed into coffins at scene
- The victims were a close-knit group of friends and relatives and whole families had been wiped out in the disaster
- They had been on weekend trip to hot springs and to visit the birthplace of last Italian saint Padre Pio in Pietrelcina
- Five young children rescued as firefighters used electric saws to cut through twisted metal looking for survivors
- Firefighter: ‘All I saw were shadows, metal and broken glass. And then I heard the cries. It made my blood run cold’
- Girl, 10, pulled alive describes hearing shouting and a ‘strong smell of burning’ as she lay trapped in the wreckage
- Passenger in one of vehicles hit by coach said: ‘It suddenly began to rain cars. It seemed the apocalypse had come’
- British Foreign Secretary William Hague expresses his ‘sincere condolences’ to the victims and their families
The coach hit several vehicles before smashing through a parapet and toppling down a steep slope near the town of Avellino, in the Campania region.
At least 10 people have been injured, some of them seriously.
The coach was taking about 50 people, including children, back to Naples following a pilgrimage, reports say.
The cause of the accident is not clear.
TV footage showed smashed vehicles on the flyover and shrouded bodies lined up by the side of a road.
The driver of the coach is said to be among the dead.
“The situation is critical,” leading fireman Pellegrino Iandolo told Italian television.
“Our men are working to save as many lives as possible.”
A police spokesman told the French news agency AFP that the number of victims could not yet be confirmed.
“We are still pulling people from the vehicle,” he said.
Horrific: Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through metal looking for survivors inside the mangled bus, stopping occasionally in silence to listen for any cries for help
Carnage: Firefighters stand near the wreckage of the bus which plunged 30m (98ft) off a motorway into a ravine, killing at least 39 people
Holiday horror: A crane lifts up the wreckage of a bus which toppled off the highway above killing at least 38 tourists in the southern region of Campania in Italy
Crumpled: The bus lost control near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, an agricultural area about 40 miles inland from Naples and about 160 miles south of Rome
Photojournalist Sandro di Domenico: “The scene was horrific”
He added that the Naples-Bari motorway had been closed to traffic because of the accident.
Reports say the bus smashed through a guardrail on the flyover and dropped 30m (98ft), coming to rest in heavy undergrowth.
The injured have been taken to hospitals in Avellino, Salerno and Nola, Ansa said.
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