Terror in Venice as cruise ship ploughs into tourist boat
DWARFED by a giant cruise ship, a small riverboat sits badly damaged after a terrifying collision on a busy Venetian canal.
Shortly beforehand, the towering MSC Opera, which was out of control after a mechanical failure, had barrelled towards the River Countess blaring its horns, unable to halt its momentum.
Tourists ran from the scene in panic as the cruise ship – 177ft high and 902ft long – ploughed into the smaller vessel yesterday and hit a dock on the Giudecca Canal, one of the major thoroughfares in the ancient city.
There were 111 people on the riverboat, but thankfully only four were injured. The women tourists – an American, a New Zealander and two Australians aged between 67 and 72 – were hurt as they tried to flee. The incident has sparked new calls to ban cruise ships in Venice with critics claiming they are out of scale for the city, damage the lagoon’s ecosystem and are dangerous.
Elisabetta Pasqualin, who watched the crash, said: ‘There was this huge ship in a diagonal position with a tugboat near which seemed like it couldn’t do anything.’ She said the ship was ‘advancing slowly but inevitably towards the dock’ before ramming the riverboat, which crumpled like it was ‘made of plastic or paper’.
She added: ‘The bow of the ship crashed hard into the bank with its massive weight crushing a big piece of it.’ The luxury ship – owned by MSC Cruises – was carrying 2,679 holidaymakers and was about to dock at a passenger terminal at 8.30am when it had a mechanical failure. Two tugboats guiding the cruise ship into the canal failed in attempts to stop it ramming into the riverboat.
Davide Calderan, president of a Venice tugboat association, said the ship’s engine was ‘locked’ when the captain called for help.
Italy’s transport minister, Danilo Toninelli, said: ‘Today’s accident proves that cruise ships shouldn’t be allowed to pass down the Giudecca any more. After many years of inertia, we are finally close to a solution.’
The collision came days after seven people were killed when the Mermaid, a sightseeing boat carrying South Korean tourists, was hit by another boat on the River Danube in Budapest. Twentyone remain missing after the Mermaid sank last Wednesday in the Hungarian capital.
‘It was advancing slowly but inevitably’