A 47-year-old African bus driver was held by Carabinieri police on Wednesday after he hijacked a bus with Italian schoolchildren and set the bus on fire. The Senegalese migrant tied the hands of the children with plastic electrical ties in an attempt to kill them, sources said.
The terror unleashed by the African on the children in the bus, lasted for almost 40 minutes. The Senegalese attacker said he was angry at government migrant policy, and confiscated the phones of his passengers while telling them that no one would survive.
The attacker Ousseynou Sy, hijacked the bus with 51 pupils from a middle school in the northern province of Cremona. Sy, originally from Senegal, has a criminal record and has been Italian citizen since 2004.
He said he wanted to kill himself and “stop the deaths in the Mediterranean,” according to sources, and ordered a teacher to tie the children’s hands with plastic ties. The teacher only attached the ties to four or five of the children, and so loosely that they could easily free themselves afterwards, local sources told the media.
“No one will survive,” the attacker told his victims after hijacking the vehicle outside San Donato near Milan, according to Carabinieri Provincial Commander Luca De Marchis.
But one boy, a 13-year-old, managed to hide his phone from the assaillant and call the police. Before the police could intervene, the suspect had also tried to ram through a road block.
When law enforcement finally stopped the bus, the migrant tried to escape from the vehicle while setting it alight, having poured petrol inside. But the Carabinieri managed to get the children out to safety out by smashing the rear windows.
Un senegalese è stato arrestato dopo aver sequestrato uno scuolabus con 51 studenti e dato fuoco al mezzo. L’uomo, italiano dal 2004 e con precedenti per ubriachezza e violenza sessuale, voleva uccidersi.“La faccio finita, vanno fermate le morti in mare". Nessun ragazzo ferito pic.twitter.com/i1adiwNXJn— Giank-deR 🇮🇹 (@GiancarloDeRisi) March 20, 2019
“The flames broke out while some children were still inside,” the colonel confirmed to Italian daily La Reppublica. “In those moments of great excitement the Senegalese decided to get off the bus, but he was blocked – he has burns to his hands.”
The suspect admitted to having brought a kitchen knife, while not confirming that he had a gun, although some witnesses say they caught a glimpse of it.
Twelve children and two adults were...
