A cruise ship lost control and crashed on a ship at a dock in Venice

The tourists, on land, started running when they saw the 13-story ship "MSC Opera" flying over the pier, emitting a powerful engine noise, before colliding with a tourist boat, the "River Countness", as shown by a video posted on the Twitter network by a user.

"When we saw the boat approaching us, everyone started screaming and running"Said a sailor of the "Countess of the river", quoted by the Italian media.

"I did not know what to do, I left quickly jumping to go to shore," said the man, whose name was not mentioned.

Four people were slightly injured The port authorities said in the accident occurred in San Basilio-Zattere, in the Giudecca Cbad in Venice.

All four were transferred to a hospital and were on board the injured tourist ship.

The Opera, which had already had mechanical problems in 2011 during a trip across the Baltic Sea, can carry up to 2,500 pbadengers and houses a theater, a dance hall and a park aquatic for children.

"The MSC vessel had an engine failure, which the captain immediately reported"Davide Calderan, director of the tugboat company, said to pull the boat up to its mooring, Italian media said.

The two tugs who took the ship to Giudecca tried to stop the ship, which picked up speed but the chains that bound him were broken by the tensionCalderan added that the "MSC Opera" engine was "locked".

The accident has raised controversy surrounding the damage to the Italian city, inscribed – with its lagoon – in the universal heritage of Unesco and its fragile ecosystem the huge cruise ships that sail near the coast.

Their presence is such that the chimneys of these immense boats are outlined behind the steeples and bridges of the emblematic city.

"What happened in the port of Venice is a confirmation of what we have been saying for a while now," tweeted the Italian Minister of the Environment, Sergio Costa.

"Cruise ships should not sail in front of the Giudecca, we have been working for several months to move them. […] and we are about to find a solution, "he promised.

The Minister of Transport, Danilo Toninelli, added that the government would propose a "definitive solution" by the end of June.

"From tomorrow we must act together and as quickly as possible to solve the problem of cruise ship traffic," said Pino Musolino, port authority of northern Adriatic.

The incident is "an alarm signal and it would be foolish to ignore it," said the Italian branch of the organization for the WWF environment.

Environmentalists blame the cruisers for contributing to the erosion of the city's regularly flooded foundations.

Founded in Italy in 1960, MSC Cruises is an international company based in Geneva, Switzerland.