A bus carrying 51 schoolchildren has allegedly been hijacked by its driver and set alight near Milan in Italy.

The children, some of them tied up, were rescued through smashed windows at the back of the bus and no-one was badly hurt. Fourteen people suffered smoke inhalation.

The driver, a 47-year-old Italian citizen originally from Senegal, was arrested.

“No-one will survive,” the driver was alleged to have said.

“It was a miracle, it could have been a massacre,” Milan chief prosecutor Francesco Greco was quoted as saying.

A teacher who had been on board the bus said the suspect was known to be angry about Italy’s migrant policy. Some reports said the man had shouted “stop the deaths in the Mediterranean”.