A driver ,was arrested on Thursday for torching a school bus full of children. He is a 47-year-old Italian citizen originally from Senegal.
The Italian Police said that he was quoted as saying that no one would survive.
The children, some of them tied up, were rescued through smashed windows at the back of the bus and no-one was badly hurt..Unfortunately fourteen people suffered smoke inhalation.
The suspect was known to be angry about Italy’s migrant policy. Some reports said the man had shouted that the government should stop the deaths in the Mediterranean.”
The driver had been taking two classes of teenagers and their adult escort from a school to a gym but took a different route on a provincial highway apparently heading for Milan’s local airport, local reports said.The ordeal then unfolded over the next 40 minutes.
Witnesses said that when he began addressing the passengers with a knife, a boy phoned a parent, who alerted the police.
It took some time before police tried to intercept the bus. The vehicle rammed into police cars before slowing down.
Italian reports said the driver had sprinkled petrol around the bus but police were able to smash the rear windows and let the passengers off before it burst into flames.
Milan prosecutors said they were investigating all possible motives including terrorism.
Italy’s right-wing interior minister, Matteo Salvini, reacted with outrage that a man with a record of driving while under the influence of alcohol could have been allowed to drive a coach full of children.
“It was a miracle, it could have been a massacre,” Milan chief prosecutor Francesco Greco was quoted as saying.
