Thirty-nine people were killed and around 10 injured when a bus plunged off a viaduct in southern Italy in what Prime Minister Enrico Letta described yesterday as a huge tragedy.

A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers.