A migrant from Africa has drowned in Venice’s Grand Canal as tourists and locals filmed it on their phones. The young migrant, named as Pateh Sabally, a 22-year-old Gambian, was seen jumping into the water from a pier and swimming to the middle of the large canal. .
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Italian magistrates have opened an investigation into the incident after a video of the scene was posted on the Internet amid claims were shouting racist abuse. The recording appears to pick up some bystanders yelling at the flailing man. ‘He is stupid. He wants to die,’ says one person.
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One person allegedly shouted: ‘Go on, go back home.’ In the video, onlookers start to laugh and one man can be heard saying, ‘Let him die at this point.’ Hundreds witnessed the migrant’s death and later saw his dead body being pulled out of the water wrapped in a blue bag and tied to a ladder.
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Three lifebelts were thrown to him, but after rising to the surface, the man made no effort to reach them, prompting suggestions that he was committing suicide.