Below is a follow-up to last night’s post about the bus full of schoolchildren that was torched by a Senegalese culture-enricher near Milan. It features an extended interview with one of the kids who was on the bus.

While listening to these interviews and reading the news report, it occurred to me how easily this incident could have turned into something truly horrific, and then we’d have had teddy bears and candles all over the West for weeks afterwards. However, thanks to a couple of boys who kept their heads, and police who reacted promptly and did their jobs properly, the worst was avoided. The school district is now short one bus, and the Italian government has to pay for a lengthy trial and the perpetrator’s subsequent incarceration — that’s the extent of it.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00 Therefore it wasn’t… —No, it wasn’t a …

00:04 You hadn’t previously seen the driver? — No, we had never seen him

00:08 It was the first time, and what happened is that

00:12 we were returning to school, this crazy guy, we’ll call him,

00:16 and it happened that he took us as far as Milan

00:20 then we went to Peschiera then we went to San Donato, and then the police intervened,

00:24 really, like they were supposed to do…

00:28 Did he take different streets, not only the Paullese, right?

00:31 No, then he stopped, I said. When he threw the gasoline all over the bus

00:38 and… began to swear

00:42 and also to say that… his three children were dead

00:47 and that all the children were dying in the sea

00:51 and that they are immigrants, so they were dying.

00:55 Is it true that he spoke also of Di Maio and Salvini? —Yes,

00:58 he also insulted Di Maio and Salvini because

01:01 it isn’t right that…

01:05 a country sends… How do you say?

01:08 — that won’t let them in. —Because they won’t let them

01:11 come into Italy, and because they didn’t have work.

01:14 Is it true that he handcuffed you? —Eh? —He tied you? —Yes.

01:18 Those in front of the bus… were handcuffed and

01:23 some of my friends, by mistake, were tying, was cutting, and cut the skin of my friend.

01:31 Did he take your cell phones, too? —No, because I had left mine in the classroom,

01:35 therefore I was fortunate. Then the police intervened, broke the glass,

01:38 and so they saved us.

01:41 You had already gone to the gym? So you were going back to school?

01:44 Yes, we were going back to school, and

01:48 they kidnapped, between brackets.

01:52 When did you realize you weren’t going the right way? When we were going to school

01:57 we were passing the street and we… we were going towards Milan,

02:02 and we were not able to… we … tried to break the glass.

02:07 But, nothing. —You got up when you realized that…

02:13 Yes, in fact, some, I cried a little because, it’s not like it’s a great experience.

02:17 And the others got up? Yes, the others got up

02:21 and started to cry because this behavior is not right

02:24 against people. OK, I understand people dying but…

02:28 He continued to drive? —Yes, he continued to drive. He was driving zigzag.

02:32 He even struck… the police car,

02:36 and the police fired a shot

02:41 at the kidnapper, that is, the driver…

02:46 and… they took him to jail. —A real chase, therefore?

02:50 Yes, a chase, in fact, there were three or four police cars, and a

02:54 policeman who positioned himself on the side and shot at him, but it’s not that he did so much.

02:58 What did the teachers do?

03:01 The teachers were tied up, both hands and legs

03:04 and they didn’t do very much. They tried to… uh… not be tied up,

03:11 but they were constrained forcefully.

03:14 Is it true that you gave the alarm with your cell phones? —Yes, it was

03:17 a friend of mine, Ricardo Frignati, and another friend of mine.

03:20 They called the police without being discovered.

03:24 In fact, the police arrived afterward. —So two called?

03:28 Yes, two called, and we made it.

03:31 They succeeded in hiding the cell phone? —They succeeded in hiding their cell phones inside,

03:35 but then Niccolò and another friend from another class, they took them, because they wanted to.

03:39 Is it true that he had a knife?

03:42 He had a knife and there was a pistol. With the knife he cut the part where the strap was,

03:47 but actually he used it to cut the skin on purpose.

03:50 And what did he say meanwhile?

03:53 Ugh, “You all have to die because, given that my three children died,

03:57 you have to die the same way”.

04:00 Turn here, one moment here. He spoke about the three children. He said he had three dead children?

04:05 He said that they died in the sea,

04:08 and that we (kids) should have the same fate, but by burning.

04:12 And the Carabinieri arrived to save you?

04:15 The Carabinieri arrived, yes. So many Carabinieri arrived to save us.

04:20 From where did they board? —They… because did it with cars. They took using cars…

04:28 Ugh… rubber clubs — I don’t remember what it’s called.

04:32 They stopped him — the first time they didn’t succeed. The second time

04:36 they brought more cars, they forced him to go backwards, and they blocked him

04:40 and the police started to break the glass with clubs.

04:44 Did you cry? … —I was hoping to die.

04:48 You were hoping? You mean you had a fear of dying.

04:53 Yes, I had a fear of dying.

04:57 Why? What were you thinking? —Why? Because I thought that he was

05:00 taking us to the airport. I didn’t know why — for what motive.

05:03 But he told us, given that they are dead, because the children came and are dead,

05:09 dead in the water, in the sea,