Calls to ban cruise ships from entering Giudecca Canal in Venice after crash
An Australian tourist has shared his horror after an out-of-control cruise ship he was on board rammed a dock and a river tourist boat in Italy.
The collision happened about 8:30 am on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to Saint Mark's Square in the northeastern Italian city.
Videos of the crash show the MSC Opera cruise ship, apparently unable to halt its momentum, blaring its horn as it ploughs into a much smaller river boat and the dock this morning (local time) as people on the dock run away in panic.
People were seen running as the out-of-control cruise ship hurtled towards the dock Twitter
Australian tourist Robert Lauretti was having breakfast on his balcony on the MSC Opera when the collision occurred.
“We were watching the boat going into port and we noticed that it was heading straight for the pier. The closer it got, the more we started to freak out regarding the fact that it wasn't turning,” he told Today.
Mr Lauretti said all he could hear before the crash was people telling passengers to brace for impact.
“We were all bracing quite hard,” he said.
“Oddly enough we could hardly feel the actual impact. There was a lot of noise, but the ship itself didn't jolt all that much. [It was] very surprising.”
Mr Lauretti said there were “people running everywhere in every direction” before the crash, with at least two people flipped from the boat after the collision.
The Australian tourist said the boat would remain docked overnight, but would continue to Kotor in the morning.
“I got off the boat this afternoon to go see some relatives of mine and was able to look down the side that was hit,” he said.
“Apart from some scratches, I could not see anything else.”
The cruise liner also hit a tourist river boar AAP
Top Italian officials have immediately called for cruise ships to be banned from using the Giudecca Canal in Venice after an out-of-control cruise ship rammed both a dock and a river tourist boat in the Italian city.
Danilo Toninelli, Italy's transport minister, says "today's accident in the port of Venice proves that cruise ships shouldn't be allowed to pass down the Giudecca anymore."
"After many years of inertia, we are finally close to a solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism," he adds.
Four older female tourists were injured as they tried to run away, as the cruise ship rammed the tourist boat.
Venice is a tremendously popular site for both tourists and cruise ships, especially during the summer tourist season.
The cruise ship's owner, MSC Cruises, said the ship, the MSC Opera, was about to dock at a passenger terminal in Venice when it had a mechanical problem.
The company says it is cooperating with authorities to figure out what happened.
Five people were injured in the incident AAP
The cruise ship would have had close to 3,000 people on board AAP
Two towboats guiding the cruise ship into Venice tried to stop the massive cruise ship, but they were unable to prevent it from ramming into the river boat.
"The two towboats tried to stop the giant and then a tow cable broke, cut by the collision with the river boat," Davide Calderan, president of a towboat association in Venice, told the Italian news agency ANSA.
Calderan said the cruise ship's engine was locked when the captain called for help.
The MSC Opera was built in 2004. It can carry over 2,675 passengers in 1,071 cabins.
According to its sailing schedule, the cruise ship left Venice on May 26 and traveled to Kotor, Montenegro, and Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu in Greece before returning Sunday to Venice.
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