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Cruise ship crashes into tourist boat in Venice, injuring five people Cruise ship crashes into tourist boat in Venice, injuring five people
(about 3 hours later)
A cruise ship has struck a dock and a tourist river boat on a busy canal in Venice. Italian media report that at least five people have been injured in the crash. The mayor of Venice has said cruise ships must change their routes after a huge holiday vessel crashed into a wharf and tourist boat, injuring five people.
The collision happened at about 8.30am on Sunday on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to St Mark’s Square in the north-eastern Italian city. Luigi Brugnaro said it was no longer conceivable that cruise ships could pass through the busy Giudecca canal and called for a new route to open immediately.
A video of the crash – which happened on Sunday morning after the 13-deck MSC Opera experienced an engine failure – shows people on land fleeing as the ship scrapes along the dockside, siren blaring, before ploughing into the River Countess tourist boat.
#BREAKING: Tourists flee as cruise liner smashes into dock in Venice pic.twitter.com/DSIjHckYxk#BREAKING: Tourists flee as cruise liner smashes into dock in Venice pic.twitter.com/DSIjHckYxk
Video of the crash shows the cruise ship, apparently unable to stop, ploughing into the much smaller river boat and the dock as dozens of people flee in panic. Venice’s port authority said it was working to resolve the accident and free up the blocked canal. “But from tomorrow we need to move, all together and as quickly as possible, to resolve the cruise ship traffic problem,” said Pino Musolino of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority.
Venice is a popular site for both tourists and cruise ships, especially during the summer tourist season. That cruise ships are allowed to pass through the Giudecca canal, a major thoroughfare that leads towards St Mark’s Square, before disgorging thousands of people in the popular tourist destination, has been a point of contention for years.
Tourists on land could be seen running away as the 13-deck MSC Opera scraped along the dockside before knocking into a tourist boat, in amateur video footage posted on Twitter. In June 2017, the No Grandi Navi (no large ships) activist group held an unofficial referendum in which Venetians voted in favour of ousting the ships from the city’s lagoon.
The Opera, which suffered mechanical trouble in 2011 during a Baltic cruise, can carry more than 2,500 passengers and boasts a theatre, ballroom and waterpark for children. “We have four people bruised and one wounded … it could have been much worse,” Brugnaro tweeted. “It is no longer conceivable that big ships cross the Giudecca canal. We ask for the immediate opening of the Vittorio Emanuele [canal].”
“The MSC ship had an engine failure, which was immediately reported by the captain,” Davide Calderan, the head of a tugboat company involved in accompanying the ship into its berth, told Italian media. A plan to divert large cruise ships away from St Mark’s basin and the Giudecca canal and towards the Vittorio Emanuele canal was drawn up by local authorities four years ago. “And in that time there has been no response [from the national government],” said Paola Mar, Venice tourism chief. “Our message is clear: enough, now.”
“The engine was blocked, but with its thrust on, because the speed was increasing,” he said. Danilo Toninelli, who became transport minister a year ago, said the government was finally close to a solution. “Today’s accident at the port of Venice shows that big ships should no longer pass through the Giudecca,” he tweeted. “After so many years of inertia, we are finally close to a definitive solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism.”
The two tugboats that had been guiding the ship into the Giudecca tried to slow it, but one of the chains linking them to the cruise ship snapped under the pressure, he added. Environmentalists have long claimed that waves caused by the cruise ships have eroded the underwater supports of buildings and polluted the waters.
The accident reignited a heated row in the Serenissima over the damage caused to the city and its fragile ecosystem by cruise ships that sail close to the shore. Sergio Costa, the environment minister, said the government was close to finding a solution. “What happened in the port of Venice is confirmation of what we have been saying for some time,” he said.
While gondoliers in striped T-shirts and woven straw hats row tourists around the narrow canals, the smoking chimneys of mammoth ships loom behind the city’s picturesque bell towers and bridges. It is unclear whether the solution would mean cruise ships of all sizes being banned from the canal.
Critics say the waves the ships create are eroding the foundations of the lagoon city, which regularly floods, leaving sites such as St Mark’s Square under water. In November 2017, Italy’s previous administration announced a plan for ships weighing more than 96,000 tonnes to instead enter the lagoon via the Malamocco canal to reach the mainland area of Marghera, where a passenger terminal would be built. Meanwhile, medium-sized vessels would go past Marghera and take the longer route through the Vittorio Emanuele canal before reaching the Marittima terminal, where cruise liners currently dock.
“What happened in the port of Venice is confirmation of what we have been saying for some time,” Italy’s environment minister, Sergio Costa, wrote on Twitter. “Cruise ships must not sail down the Giudecca. We have been working on moving them for months now … and are nearing a solution,” he said. But if and when final government approval comes, work on the new route, which requires the dredging of canals and construction of a new port, would take an estimated four years. And while diverting the ships would better preserve the historic centre, the move will do little to address concerns about pollution.
Venice’s port authority said it was was working to resolve the accident and free up the blocked canal.
“But from tomorrow we need to move, all together and as quickly as possible, to resolve the cruise ship traffic problem,” said Pino Musolino of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority.
MSC Cruises, founded in Italy in 1960, is a global line registered in Switzerland and based in Geneva.MSC Cruises, founded in Italy in 1960, is a global line registered in Switzerland and based in Geneva.
The Opera, built 15 years ago, suffered a power failure in 2011 in the Baltic, forcing 2,000 people to disembark in Stockholm rather than continuing their voyage from Southampton to St Petersburg. The Opera, built 15 years ago, experienced a power failure in 2011 in the Baltic, forcing 2,000 people to disembark in Stockholm rather than continuing their voyage from Southampton to St Petersburg.
Venice attracts an estimated 30 million visitors a year.
ItalyItaly
EuropeEurope
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