Italy to grant citizenship to 'hero' boy who called for help after school bus hijacked near Milan

Italy plans to give citizenship to a boy hailed a hero after defying a bus driver who hijacked his own vehicle and threatened to burn 51 children to death to avenge the drowning of migrants in the Mediterranean.

The 13-year-old of Egyptian origin, named as Rami Shehata, managed to hide his mobile phone when the driver insisted that all the children hand over their phones to him.

He then pretended to pray in Arabic as the driver made threats and waved a knife, while in reality telling his father what was happening.

“It allowed his father to understand what was going on and to contact the forces of law and order,” said Stefania Bonaldi, the mayor of Crema, the town in northern Italy where many of the children are from.

Government officials said on Thursday they would fast-track and pay for the boy’s citizenship application.

Despite being born in Italy, Rahmi is not an Italian citizen, like hundreds of thousands of other children in the same predicament.

Under Italian law, a child born to foreigners on Italian soil does not have the automatic right to citizenship and must wait until they are 18 to apply for it.

His parents had suggested that the boys’ bravery could be recognised by the conferral of citizenship.

“The interior ministry is ready to take care of the expense and to fast-track citizenship for this little hero,” officials said in a statement.

Matteo Salvini, the interior minister, said meanwhile that he hoped to be able to revoke the Italian citizenship of the driver under a security decree that the government introduced in December.

Oussenyou Sy, 47, was born in France to Senegalese parents and obtained Italian citizenship in 2004.

He married an Italian woman but the couple split up. They have two children, aged 12 and 18.

Investigators said there was no indication that he had links to Islamic State or any other extremist group.

Revocation would be possible if Sy is charged and convicted of terrorism offences, said Mr Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister and leader of The League. “This villain needs topay for everything he did,” he said.

The schoolchildren were left traumatised after the bus was hijacked by Sy on the outskirts of Milan on Wednesday.

He was driving them from a sports venue back to their school.

During the 40-minute drama, he smashed into police vehicles which had set up a roadblock on a highway near Milan, before setting light to petrol that he had doused inside the coach. It burst into flames.

Police smashed the windows of the bus to extricate the children and then arrested Sy.

The coach was burned down to its metal skeleton.

At one point during the hijack, as he called 112, Italy’s emergency number, Rami dropped his phone.

It was picked up by another boy, Riccardo, 12, who handed it to a third, a boy of Moroccan heritage called Adam, 12, in the seat behind him.

Adam phoned his parents to tell them he was in the middle of a terrifying hostage situation, but they initially refused to believe him.

“I told my mum the driver wanted to kill us all by dousing us with petrol. At first, she didn’t believe me – I often play little jokes on her. Also, kids all around me were crying out and talking and she couldn’t hear me very well,” Adam told Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily.

Finally convinced of what was taking place, his parents also called the police, initiating an emergency response to the situation involving armed officers, vehicles and helicopters.

As the coach careered along the highway and the driver made threats, the children tried in vain to smash the windows with their fists.

They even tried to indicate the numbers 112 – the emergency services hotline – by making the shapes with their fingers and gesturing to passing motorists.

The driver spotted them and ordered them to close the curtains on the windows so they could no longer try to communicate.

“It was the worst day of my life,” said Adam. “But we helped each other and we learnt how to defend each other. And to save ourselves.”

Sy had a criminal record – he had convictions for drunk driving in 2007 and for sexually harassing a 17-year-old girl in 2010.

Italian politicians have asked why he was allowed to drive a school bus in light of his past.

It appears that when he was convicted of drunk driving and lost his licence, he lied to his employers, saying that he was sick and could not work for a while.

Mariastella Gelmini, a centre-Right politician, suggested that the boys should all receive awards for their bravery.