Bus hijacked in northern Italy, passengers freed

Turin, Italy, May 16: Three armed men hijacked a bus in northern Italy today, freed all the passengers and forced the driver to change direction before being stopped by police at a roadblock.

One hijacker was wounded when police opened fire and was arrested. The two others fled but one was captured.

The police initially thought the hijackers were of north African origin but said one of those arrested was an Albanian.

They gave no possible motive for the assault on the bus which was carrying around 20 passengers, mostly students.

Two of the passengers were police cadets who tried but failed to overcome the hijackers and received light knife wounds.

The three men boarded the bus, on a country route in the northwest region of Piedmont, at around 1830 hrs IST.

They ordered the other passengers to get off and forced the driver to take another road, but were then stopped by police who had set up roadblocks in the area.

The attackers then set the bus on fire with cans of fuel.

Reuters>