Tuscany Car crashes into group of people - two German schoolgirls dead

A car crashes into a group of pedestrians in the Tuscan town of Lido di Camaiore. Two schoolgirls from Germany are said to be among the fatalities.

Two young German women have died in a traffic accident in Tuscany. The two teenagers - born in 2005 and 2006 - were hit by a car in the municipality of Lido di Camaiore on the Mediterranean, which, for reasons that were initially unclear, drove into a group of pedestrians, according to the municipality.

According to initial information from the Italian police, the driver, a 44-year-old woman, had lost control of her vehicle. According to dpa information, the two fatalities came from a school in North Rhine-Westphalia.

According to a report by the Italian news agency Ansa, a total of seven people were injured, including the driver. All of them were taken to hospital. The accident happened at around 7 pm.

"The car ran over everything in its path"

According to Mayor Marcello Pierucci, the driver was arrested. She was also checked to see if she was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

According to the mayor, the car was speeding through an intersection in the city center and then ran over the pedestrians. Finally, it crashed into several parked vehicles near a hotel. "Nothing like this has ever happened before," Pierucci told TV station 50Canale. "The car ran over everything in its path, even after the second impact."

The municipality of Lido di Camaiore is located directly by the sea, about half an hour's drive west of the busy city of Lucca. The beach promenade is closed to traffic. The accident occurred a few hundred meters away in the center of the town. The two well-known seaside resorts of Forte dei Marmi and Viareggio are located in the immediate vicinity of Lido di Camaiore.

dpa