This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

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.

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.

Russian Market (@russian_market) #BREAKING: Tourists flee as cruise liner smashes into dock in Venice pic.twitter.com/DSIjHckYxk

Footage show people rushing to disembark from the moored riverboat over a short gangplank, and at least two people left caught on the walkway as the vessel was dislodged from the pier.

Elisabetta Pasqualin was watering plants on her terrace when she heard warning sirens and stepped out to see the crash.

“There was this huge ship in a diagonal position in the Giudecca Canal, with a tugboat near which seemed like it couldn’t do anything,” she said.

She described the ship “advancing slowly but inevitably towards the dock.” She said “the bow of the ship crashed hard into the bank with its massive weight crushing a big piece of it. Sirens were wailing loudly; it was a very dramatic scene.”

When the cruise ship rammed the riverboat, she said the smaller vessel looked like it was “made of plastic or paper” rather than steel.

Local officials said five women aboard the riverboat were injured. They said one was released immediately from a hospital, while four others were advised to remain under medical care for a few days.

Earlier, medical authorities said four of the women – an American, a New Zealander and two Australians between the ages of 67 and 72 – were injured falling or trying to run away when the cruise ship rammed into the River Countess.

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.

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.

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.

“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].”

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.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The cruise ship next to the smaller tourist boat in Venice. Photograph: Manuel Silvestri/Reuters

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.”

Environmentalists have long claimed that waves caused by the cruise ships have eroded the underwater supports of buildings and polluted the waters.

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.

It is unclear whether the solution would mean cruise ships of all sizes being banned from the canal.

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.

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.

MSC Cruises, founded in Italy in 1960, is a global line registered in Switzerland and based in Geneva.

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.

Associated Press contributed to this report