Five people have reportedly been injured after a cruise ship struck a tourist boat on one of Venice’s busiest canals.
The collision happened at about 8.30am on Sunday on the Giudecca Canal, a major thoroughfare that leads to Saint Mark's Square in the Italian city.
Videos of the crash show the cruise ship, apparently unable to halt its momentum, blaring its horn as it plows into the much smaller river boat and the dock while dozens of people run away in panic.
According to Italian media, at least five people have been injured in the crash. Four of the injured are believed to have been on board the smaller boat.
It comes days after seven people were killed and 21 were left missing after a small sightseeing boat was hit by a cruise liner on the Danube in Budapest.
Venice is a tremendously popular site for both tourists and cruise ships, especially during the summer tourist season.
The cruise ship's owner, MSC Cruises, said the ship, the MSC Opera, was about to dock at a passenger terminal in Venice when it had a mechanical problem.
The company says it is cooperating with authorities to figure out what happened.
Two towboats guiding the massive cruise ship into Venice were unable to prevent it from ramming into the river boat.
"The two towboats tried to stop the giant and then a tow cable broke, cut by the collision with the river boat," Davide Calderan, president of a towboat association in Venice, told the Italian news agency Ansa.
Mr Calderan said the cruise ship's engine was locked when the captain called for help.
The MSC Opera was built in 2004. It can carry over 2,675 passengers in 1,071 cabins. According to its sailing schedule, it left Venice on May 26 and travelled to Kotor, Montenegro, and Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu in Greece before returning Sunday to Venice.
Additional reporting by agencies
