Large cruise ships are to be banned from entering Venice's historic centre, the Italian government says. Ships weighing more than 1,000 tons will be rerouted away from certain waterways from September. The move follows an accident in June in which a ship collided with a dock, injuring five people.
A massive cruise ship lost control as it docked in Venice on Sunday crashing into the wharf and hitting a tourist boat after suffering an engine failure. Tourists on the harbor could be seen running away as the 13-deck MSC Opera scraped along the dockside, its engine blaring, before knocking into a tourist boat, amateur video footage posted on Twitter showed.
A special commission approved this week a plan to divert cruise ships away from Venice's historic center by 2016, but activists seeking to rid the city of the giant ships expressed reservations about the proposed new route.