Twelve students have been rushed to hospital in Italy after a man stopped their school bus and set it alight shortly after.
Ousseynou Sy, originally Senegalese but with Italian citizenship, halted the bus he was driving, with aboard two classes of 51 high school students.
Everybody managed to get off with the help of police when he set the bus alight, threatening to kill himself.
The remains of the bus in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, which was set alight this morning
Firefighters and police officers attended the scene after a student aboard called the police
The incident happened in San Donato Milanese, a town near Milan, Italy.
The 47-year-old father of two, whose ex-wife is Italian, has been arrested and charged with carnage and kidnapping, worsened by the fact that most of the people involved are under age.
Nobody was seriously injured, but twelve students were rushed to hospital for a principle of intoxication.
Two adults and the driver have also been brought to hospital.
The 47-year-old driver set the bus alight and then he threatened to kill himself, saying deaths in the Mediterranean must be stopped
Massimo Traetta, who was driving in the opposite lane, witnessed and filmed the scene, showing the children running away from the bus after the police arrived to attend the incident.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that, before inflaming the bus, the man shouted: ‘I want to be done, deaths in the Mediterranean must be stopped.’
Mr Sy, who has been an Italian citizen since 2004, has a criminal record for driving in a state of drunkenness and for a case of sexual abuse on a minor.
According to early reconstructions of the incident, the man had to bring the two student classes from the high school Vailati di Crema to the gym, but he diverted the route.
Massimo Traetta, who was driving in the opposite lane, witnessed and filmed the scene
A student reported that Sy wanted to head towards the airport.
Witness aboard the bus said Sy started screaming while driving, showing a can of gasoline and a lighter.
One of the students aboard called the police who arrived quickly and stopped the bus near the junction with Peschiera Borromeo, Milan.
Officers broke the rear windows, letting the young students get off the bus while Sy set it alight.
Policemen were called by a student after the driver started screaming, showing a can of gasoline and a lighter
Firefighters also attended the scene.
Another student aboard the bus told Repubblica: ‘He was threatening us, saying if we moved he would have poured the gasoline and set a fire.
‘He kept saying that people in Africa die and it is the fault of Di Maio and Salvini.
‘Then the police saved us.’
Officers broke the rear windows of the bus, letting the children get off while the man set the bus on fire
Autoguidovie, a society managing the school bus service, said: ‘The man, our coworker since at least 2002, has been working full time since 2004.
‘Over the years he has never shown any signs of mental imbalance, neither have we ever received any complaint regarding his behaviour as a driver.
‘As a company, we did not know anything about his criminal record.’
An investigation at the driver’s house is ongoing.
Investigators also asked four of the students who were aboard the bus to go back where the accident took place to reconstruct what happened.