Update: The driver, a 47-year-old father of two whose ex-wife is Italian, has been charged with carnage and kidnapping of 51 students, according to the Daily Mail.

According to the a police commander, the the driver, Ousseynou Sy, threatened the passengers - "telling them that 'no one would survive today." as he dcommandeered the bus carrying two middle-school classes in Cremona province around 25 miles from Milan."

Ousseynou Sy, originally Senegalese but with Italian citizenship, stopped the bus he was driving, with two classes of high school students on board. He was said to have ordered the children's hands to be bound and threatened to kill them and himself during the drive, before setting the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a police blockade today. Officers broke the glass in the back door of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle, authorities said. As he was apprehended, the driver said he was protesting migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, Commander Luca De Marchis told Sky TG24. -Daily Mail

An adult was able to make an emergency call, while one of the students called a parent who alerted authorities.

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A bus full of school children in Italy was set on fire by its driver in the outskirts of Milan on Wednesday in protest of migrants who have drowned due to the country's hardline stance on blocking migrant vessels, according to Reuters.

Police were called to the scene and quickly managed to get everyone to safety before arresting the man.

The driver, Ousseynou Sy, a 47-year-old Senegalese-born Italian with a criminal record, reportedly shouted "Stop the deaths at sea, I’ll carry out a massacre" according to police spokesman Marco Palmieri.

All of the children were able to escape before the bus was completely engulfed in flames. One child told reporters that the man had threatened to pour gas on them and set them ablaze.

A video posted on Italian news sites showed the driver ramming the bus into cars on a provincial highway before the fire took hold. Children can be seen running away from the vehicle screaming and shouting “escape”. Palmieri said some children were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure because they had bruises or were in a state of shock, but none suffered serious injuries. -Reuters

Italy's Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, drew criticism from pro-migrant groups last year after he closed the country's ports to NGO migrant vessels ferrying mostly North African refugees across the Mediterranean - resulting in several standoffs between Italian authorities and migrant boats which made international headlines.

Most recently, Salvini refused to allow a ship with 49 migrants, the Mare Jonio, to dock - saying that the passengers "can be treated, dressed and fed. We can give them every manner of comfort, but they will not set foot in Italy."

The rescue ship #MareJonio of @RescueMed has reportedly come across a dinghy with approx. 50 people in distress. Rescue currently ongoing.



Despite a dangerously low SAR capacity in the #Mediterranean due to #Italy & #EU policy, people continue to risk their lives to seek safety. https://t.co/x7mpVVdX7u — MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) March 18, 2019

Salvini said that the Italian vessel had not carried out a rescue operation - but instead "aided illegal immigration."

Salvini issued a directive on Monday saying ships rescuing people in areas of the Mediterranean under Libyan responsibility, during operations not coordinated by the command centre in Rome, have no right to use Italy as a port of safety. Meanwhile Lampedusa mayor Totò Martello has said that the migrants are welcome on the island and he does not consider its ports closed. "At sea there are no directives,” he told the news publication AdnKronos. “If there is a need and I ask to be let in, in short, you have to let me in. That’s all there is to it". -The Local

Salvini said that any infringement of international maritime or Italian law "can be read as a premeditated action to bring illegal immigrants to Italy and facilitate human trafficking."