Holidaymakers fled in terror as an out-of-control cruise ship slammed into a boat and a dock in Venice after reportedly suffering engine failure.
Harrowing footage posted online shows tourists running away as the massive vessel, the MSC Opera, slams into the dock and a horn blares to warn people to get out of the way.
The cruise ship scraped along the dock before ploughing into the smaller Michelangelo tourist boat, leaving at least four people injured and sending smoke rising from the river boat.
Reports claimed passengers on the smaller boat desperately jumped into the water and people fell from the gangway into the water.
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Sunday morning's incident happened at San Basilio-Zattere in the Venice's Giudecca Canal at the start of Venice's incredibly busy summer tourist season.
Italian media reports said two people were lightly injured and two more were taken to hospital to be checked over by medics following the collisions at about 8.30am.
Emergency workers said the cruise ship appeared to have lost control after a steel cable that tied it to a tugboat snapped.
Footage shows a woman holding her hand over her mouth in shock as she hurriedly walks away while the cruise ship approaches the terminal.
The MSC Opera scrapes along the concrete dock, pushing the Michelangelo out of its position, and a woman shouts at people to move "away".
With a height of 177ft, it towers over the pedestrians scrambling to get to safety.
There is panic in people's voices as a woman shouts "back, back, back" and holidaymakers - some clutching their bags - and workers run.
As the MSC Cruises-owned ship appears to come to a halt, a woman is heard sobbing and expressing fears for someone or something.
"They're under there somewhere," she says through tears as she is comforted by a man recording the video.
Another woman is heard sobbing and a worker then tells them to move back, saying "Let's go, please" as people speak in English and Italian.
Passengers on the smaller boat desperately jumped into the water as the ship came bearing down, and people also fell from the gangway into the water in the incident, a report by the Daily Star claimed.
The extent of the damage to the 824-ft long ship was not known.
The MSC Ocean had suffered an engine failure and was being brought in by two twoboats, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.
Davide Calderan, the head of a towboat group, said the ship increased speed as it approached the terminal, and the towboats were unable to stop it.
A towline was severed when the ship struck the river boat, he added.
MSC Cruises said the vessel had suffered a technical problem.
Danilo Toninelli, Italy's Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, said the incident shows that cruise ships should no longer pass through the Giudecca canal.
He added on Twitter: "After so many years of inaction, we are finally close to a definitive solution to protect both the lagoon and tourism."
Pino Musolino, chairman of the northern Adriatic Sea port authority, told Reuters that four people had suffered minor injuries in the crash.
The MSC Opera was on a seven-night tour of the Mediterranean after departing Venice on May 26.
It stopped in Montenegro, three Greek islands and Bari, Italy, before returning to Venice on Sunday morning.
The ship was due to depart for Montenegro on Sunday afternoon.
The vessel, which was christened by actress Sophia Loren when it entered service in June 2004, has a capacity for almost 2,700 passengers and more than 700 crew.
It has a gross tonnage of 65,591 after undergoing a major renovation in 2015.
The Giudecca Canal leads to popular Saint Mark's Square in Venice, which attracts tens of thousands of tourists, including cruise ship passengers, every day.
Local residents have hit out at cruise ship arrivals in the past, calling for them to be banned and even going as far as using small boats to block them from docking.
Venetians say the city has been overrun by tourists and they have called on limits, claiming the extraordinary number of visitors is damaging the environment, spoiling the character and pricing locals out.
Sunday's incident happened just days after a sightseeing boat carrying South Korean tourists capsized in the River Danube in Budapest.
At least seven tourists were killed and 21 were missing and presumed dead.
