A car ploughed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy early Sunday, killing 6 people and injuring 11.
The deadly crash occurred in Luttach, also known as Lutago, in South Tyrol, at around 1.15 am as the Germans were gathering to board their bus, officials have confirmed.
The group of 17 had been standing at a roadside, waiting for their tourist bus to return them to their hotel after spending the night in a club when the car, driven by a local man who had allegedly been drink-driving, crashed into them at speed.
Some of those hit were propelled dozens of metres. The Luttach volunteer fire service said in a Facebook post that the six dead were killed at the scene, after being struck by an Audi.
The majority of the injured were taken to hospital in South Tyrol, while two victims, a man and a woman, were rushed to a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, in a serious condition.
Among the injured were two people from South Tyrol, police spokesman Marc Kaufmann said in a press conference on Sunday morning.
The remaining victims were German nationals, aged between 20 and 25, Kaufmann said.
Most of those who died were from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, according to German media reports. Two of them were from the city of Wuppertal.
The victims have not yet been formally identified.
After news of the tragic incident broke, people gathered to light candles at the scene of the crash. A commemoration letter was also placed at the site. Police have identified the driver as a 28-year-old local man who had a high alcohol blood content at the time of the incident, who reportedly failed a breath test.
He has been arrested on suspicion of vehicle manslaughter and admitted to hospital under police guard.
Some 160 emergency workers were at the scene of the crash, and a field hospital was set up by the roadside to provide first aid.A terrible scene, people on the ground, cries and pain, a tragedy - we don't have the words,' a hotel receptionist told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
'We have asked several times for a radar on this road as drivers speed up as soon as they leave Lutago, and here, one kilometre from the centre, they go at 100 kilometres an hour.'
'The New Year has begun with a tragedy,' South Tyrol governor Arno Kompatscher told reporters.
The German foreign ministry in Berlin said its consulate in Milan was 'in close touch with the Italian authorities who are proceeding with the identification of the victims, assisting those who have been affected.'
Luttach is a mountain village in Italy's majority German-speaking South Tyrol region, and a popular tourist destination among Germans, attracting skiers and snowboarders in the winter months thanks to the nearby ski slopes of Klausberg and Speikboden.
The village of about 800 residents is the location for a popular Italian television series 'A un passo del ciel' ('One step from heaven').
Last week, three Germans - a woman and two girls, one of them aged seven - were killed in an avalanche in South Tyrol.
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