A 47-year-old man was held by
Carabinieri police on Wednesday after allegedly hijacking a bus
with schoolchildren aboard and subsequently starting a fire
inside the vehicle, sources said.
According to an initial reconstruction, the man hijacked the
bus with 51 pupils of a middle school at Vailati di Crema, in
the northern province of Cremona.
He said he wanted to kill himself and "stop the deaths in the
Mediterranean" the sources said.
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.
Carabinieri police managed to block the bus after one of the
young people sounded the alarm.
Twelve children and two adults were taken to hospital after
suffering smoke inhalation, as was Sy.
The bus is a write-off
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