Driver sets fire to bus packed full of children

A BUS full of children was set on fire by its driver on the outskirts of Milan.

It is believed driver Ousseynou Sy, 47, did it to protest against migrants drowning in the Mediterranean.

All 51 children escaped unharmed when it was stopped by a blockade of Italian police vehicles – before the bus was engulfed in flames.

Local media reported that Sy had been convicted in 2007 and 2011 of drink driving and sexual molestation of a minor, yet he apparently worked for the bus company for 15 years. Police spokesman Marco Palmieri said Sy, who is of Senegalese origin, shouted: ‘Stop the deaths at sea, I’ll carry out a massacre’ when he was arrested. Sy also told his passengers: ‘No one will survive today.’

A video posted on Italian news sites showed him ramming the bus into cars on a provincial highway before the fire took hold. Terrified children can be seen running and screaming: ‘Escape!’

One told police Sy threatened to pour petrol over them and set them alight.

Security official Riccardo De Corato said: ‘Investigators must clarify how the transport company permitted such a delinquent ... to drive a bus, especially one carrying children.’