A 47-year-old bus driver was held
by Carabinieri police on Wednesday after allegedly hijacking a
bus with schoolchildren aboard and subsequently setting it on
fire after handcuffing them in an apparent attempt to kill them,
sources said.
According to an initial reconstruction, the man hijacked the
bus with 51 pupils from a middle school in the northern province
of Cremona.
The suspect has been named as Ousseynou Sy, a man with a
criminal record who is originally from Senegal but has been an
Italian citizen since 2004.
He said he wanted to kill himself and "stop the deaths in the
Mediterranean," the sources said.
Sy ordered a teacher to tie the children's hands with plastic
cuffs but the teacher only cuffed four of five of them, and so
lightly that they easily freed themselves afterwards, local
sources said.
"No one will survive," Sy said after hijacking the vehicle
outside San Donato near Milan, according to Carabinieri
Provincial Commander Luca De Marchis.
After being stopped by police, he got off the bus and set it
alight, having poured petrol inside.
But the Carabinieri managed to get the children out by
smashing windows at the back, the sources said.
Before being stopped, the suspect had also tried to ram
through a road block.
Twelve children and two adults were taken to hospital after
suffering smoke inhalation, as was Sy, the sources said.
The bus is a write-off.
A teacher who was with the children said that it was not the
first time Sy drove a bus with pupils on board.
"We knew him" the teacher said, adding that the hijacker was
angry about the government's migrant policy.
"He wanted to get to the runway at (Milan's) Linate
(airport)".
The children's ordeal lasted nearly 40 minutes, local sources
said.
A girl said "he handcuffed us and threatened us. He said that
if we moved he would pour our the petrol and light the fire. He
kept saying that people in Africa are dying and the fault is Di
Maio and Salvini's. Then the Carabinieri saved us".
Luigi Di Maio, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement leader,
and Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant Euroskeptic
League, are the two partners in Italy's populist government
which has closed Italy's ports to migrant rescue NGO ships amid
a broader crackdown on migrants.
Sy will face possible charges of kidnapping, attempted mass
murder, causing a fire and resisting arrest, judicial sources
said.
"It was a miracle they survived and we have to thank the
Carabinieri for that," said Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco.
He said the prosecutors were weighing terrorism charges
against Sy.
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