Italy, Senegalese man hijacked school bus and set it on fire, students hurt, March 2019

[dotr]

Twelve students are rushed to hospital in Italy after Senegalese man hijacked their school bus | Daily Mail Online
"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.

He let everybody get off and then set the bus alight, threatening to kill himself."
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."

 

[dotr]

School bus set alight by driver in Milan | www.italianinsider.it
20 March 2019

The bus was engulfed by flames
MILAN – A school bus driver of Senegalese origin seized and set fire to his vehicle Thursday morning by dousing the interior with gasoline.

Before setting it alight, the driver stopped the vehicle carrying 51 children from Vailati middle school in Crema and ordered them to get off the bus on the provincial road 415 at San Donato Milanese.

The motive for the arson attack remains unclear but the driver was quickly stopped by police. Twelve children and two adults have been taken to hospital but authorities have reported only one injury.

Ousseynou Sy, the 47-year-old Senegalese driver already has a criminal record and has been living in Italy since 2004.

According to an initial reconstruction of events, the driver stopped the vehicle announcing that that he wanted to kill himself, Il Messaggero reported.

 

[calo44]

Thank God he let the kids off before serving it alight.

 

[dotr]

rbbm.
Bus driver in Italy takes 51 kids hostage, burns down bus as cops move in
MILAN -- A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 schoolchildren and their chaperones Wednesday and took them on an hour-long drive, then set the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a Carabinieri blockade, officials said.

Officers broke the glass in the back door of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle. As he was apprehended, the driver said he was protesting migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, Commander Luca De Marchis said.

De Marchis told Sky24 TV that the driver, an Italian citizen of Senegalese origin in his 40s, threatened the passengers, telling them that “no one would survive” as he commandeered the bus carrying two middle-school classes in Cremona province, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Milan.

An adult called an emergency operator, while one of the students called a parent, and they alerted authorities, who set up roadblocks.

 

[Jim_M]

Utter madness! Thankful the victims were able to contact help!

 

[Gardenista]

OMG this is horrific. When I google his name, this story does not come up. Why would that be?

 

[Jim_M]

OMG this is horrific. When I google his name, this story does not come up. Why would that be?

Hmmm, not sure. The DailyMail was about 10th on my results list. The Telegraph was 6th. A bunch others were Italian links.

 

[dotr]

ZaZara first posted about this in the terrorists threats thread. She translated an Italian article to English providing more information, such as the suspect had previously been charged for sexual violence and that the children had wrists bound.
WORLDWIDE - Terrorist threats and scares
Voleva fare una strage a Linate per “vendicare i morti in mare”. Autista incendia bus di studenti

ITALY- Bus driver hijacks bus with 51 schoolchildren and sets fire to it

He wanted to start a massacre, "Let's go to Linate. Nobody returns from here alive. This morning the driver of a bus hijacked a vehicle carrying 51 children from two classes of the Vailati middle school in Crema and then set fire to it. To prevent a disaster the carabinieri intervened. They were warned by one of the youngsters on board. They were able to intercept the bus and block it, and let the students get out while the flames were already surrounding them.

Ousseynou Sy, 47 years old, born in Senegal but with Italian citizenship, has a record for driving under the influence of alcohol and sexual violence. He has been arrested. "I want to be clear: why was a person with such a history driving a bus to transport children?" Interior Minister Matteo Salvini commented.

It happened on Provincial road 44 near Paullese, in the Milan area, at the junction for Peschiera Borromeo. Ousseynou Sy, 47 years old, born in Senegal and with Italian citizenship, in service for 15 years, deviated from the planned road. Under the threat of a knife, he forced teachers to tie the wrists of children with electrical ties. However, a 12-year-old boy managed to hide his mobile phone and warn 112.

The Carabinieri came speeding, found the bus and forced it to stop. The man began to spill gasoline from tanks that he had hidden in the overhead boxes and black bags near his seat, screaming that he wanted to end it all "to avenge the dead at sea." Then he started the fire. A soldier broke a window and the schoolchildren managed to escape. No one was hurt, only a few were lightly intoxicated or bruised. Immediately the "118" were on the location with a helicopter, 14 ambulances and emergency medical services. Twelve youngsters and two adults were taken to hospital as a precaution. Others were assisted by a psychologist.

"He cuffed us and threatened us. He said that if we moved, he would pour gasoline and light the fire. He kept saying that people in Africa die and the blame lies with Di Maio and Salvini. Then the Carabinieri saved us" according to a young girl who was on the bus.

The search of the house in Crema by Ousseynou Sy is underway. In the apartment, where the man lived alone, the Carabinieri arrived and are investigating his life and trying to understand the causes of his actions. The man is accused of massacre and kidnapping.


BBM

 

[Rikissa]

Ousseynou Sy was sentenced to 24 years in jail on 15 July 2020:

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2020/07/15/Italian-school-bus-hijacker-sentenced-to-24-years-in-jail

As he had been born in France to Senegalese parents, and was a Italian citizen, it's possible that he had only visited Senegal with his parents, and never lived there, so a better description of him might be 'a French-Italian with Senegalese origin'.

2019 Italian bus hijack - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org