A group of tourists in Venice fell into the icy waters of a famous canal after their gondola flipped, the Guardian reported, citing local media.
Videos shared on TikTok and Instagram showed a group of people in the water after a gondola capsized near the historic city’s St. Mark’s Square.
The group of Chinese tourists reportedly ignored calls from the gondola captain to sit down and kept moving, taking photos of the iconic city.
The gondola captain was trying to maneuver the gondola under the bridge in a difficult maneuver that required everyone on board to balance their weight evenly across the ship. But they dragged on until they finally capsized.
The tourists were eventually safely evacuated from the canal and treated at the nearby Teatro La Fenice.
The Venice Gondoliers Association did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Climate protesters turn Venice’s Grand Canal green
Climate protesters turn Venice’s Grand Canal green
Venice’s gondoliers’ association has taken steps in recent years to reduce the capacity of its boats to accommodate “overweight” tourists, The Guardian reported.
Venice’s canals are suffering from overcrowding due to an increase in tourists. In recent years, sometimes egregious behavior by tourists has been documented by the Instagram account “Venezia Non è Disneyland” (Venice is not Disneyland).
In March, Venice’s mayor said he wanted to issue a “certificate of stupidity” and “a lot of kicks” to a tourist who jumped from a three-story building into a canal.
According to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, this unique city built over a lagoon is 2.7 square miles in size, but hosted around 13 million tourists in 2019, according to BBC News.