A BUS in Italy carrying 51 students and their chaperones was hijacked and set on fire on Wednesday in an apparent protest against government immigration policy.

The secondary school students were returning from a sporting event when the driver changed the route and announced that he had taken them all hostage.

During the 40-minute ordeal, the driver threatened the lives of everyone on board, took their phones and tied them up with electric cable.

One student managed to call the police, who set up blockades, leading the bus being halted.

The driver then doused the vehicle in petrol and set it on fire, but police rescued the students by breaking the windows at the back of the vehicle.

Officials have identified the driver as an Italian citizen of Senegalese descent named Ousseynou Sy.

He claimed to be taking revenge for the deaths of thousands of migrants, predominately African, who have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years while trying to reach Europe from Libya.

According to one of the children, “he kept saying that people in Africa are dying and the fault is Di Maio and Salvini’s,” in reference to the far-right coalition government’s two leaders Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini.

Another student said: “He wanted revenge for his three daughters [who had died at sea while trying to reach Italy] and to kill us.”

Last year, the government closed Italian ports to NGO rescue ships that pick up migrants off the Libyan coast. 

Mr Salvini said this policy was intended to deter migrants from attempting the sea crossing and thus to reduce the death toll.