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African man left to drown in Venice's Grand Canal
Italian magistrates have opened an investigation after video was posted on the Internet showing an African man drowning in Venice's Grand Canal as onlookers watched from nearby boats, local media said on Wednesday.
At least three life rings were thrown into the water near the man, who was named as Pateh Sabally, a 22-year-old Gambian, but he did not appear to reach for them, raising speculation he wanted to commit suicide. No-one jumped in to help him.
Police said the incident happened on Sunday.
A video recording shown on various news websites appeared to pick up some bystanders yelling at the flailing man. "He is stupid. He wants to die," says one person.
A taxi driver told local media: "This is despair. I do not know the story of this guy. They have said he is African. Who knows what he's been through, how many seas and deserts he has crossed? And he came to die in the most beautiful city in the world."
Racist remarks were heard in footage of the incident caught on mobile phones. “Go on, go back home,” shouted one person.
“I don’t want to blame anyone but maybe something more could have been done to save him,” Dino Basso, local head of the Italian association of lifeguards, said, according to the Times.
More than 181,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat in 2016, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, an increase of almost 18 percent compared with 2015.
Italian media said Sabally had residency papers for Italy.