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Drunken driver in Italy plows into German tourists, kills 6

General view on a street where a car had plowed into a group of people in Luttach, near Bruneck in the northern region South Tirol, Italy, Sunday, Germany, Jan. 5, 2020. Italian fire officials say a car crashed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy, killing at least six people and injuring eleven. (AP Photo/Helmut Moling)
General view on a street where a car had plowed into a group of people in Luttach, near Bruneck in the northern region South Tirol, Italy, Sunday, Germany, Jan. 5, 2020. Italian fire officials say a car crashed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy, killing at least six people and injuring eleven. (AP Photo/Helmut Moling) General view on a street where a car had plowed into a group of people in Luttach, near Bruneck in the northern region South Tirol, Italy, Sunday, Germany, Jan. 5, 2020. Italian fire officials say a car crashed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy, killing at least six people and injuring eleven. (AP Photo/Helmut Moling)

By NICOLE WINFIELD / Associated Press 3 min read

ROME (AP) – A drunken driver plowed into a group of young German tourists in northern Italy early Sunday, killing six people and injuring 11 others, Italian authorities said.

The deadly crash occurred in a village of Valle Aurina, northeast of Bolzano in the Alto Adige region, shortly after 1 a.m. as the Germans gathered to board their bus. They were between the ages of 20-25.

The largely German-speaking autonomous region of northern Italy, with its ski resorts in the Dolomites and quaint villages around Bolzano, is popular with German tourists.

“The new year begins with a terrible tragedy,” said the regional president of Alto Adige, Arno Kompatscher. “We are left stunned.”

The driver of the car had a high blood alcohol content and was driving particularly fast, a Carabineri police official in Brunico told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to give his name. He said police had concluded that the car crash into pedestrians was not an act of terrorism.