Call to speed Italian citizenship for boy who made SOS call

Firefighters and police officers stand by the gutted remains of a bus in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, Italy, March 21, 2019. Italian authorities say a bus driver transporting schoolchildren stopped his vehicle on a provincial highway, told the passengers to get off and then doused the interior with gasoline and set it on fire. Italian media reported that the driver, an Italian of Senegalese origin, was immediately apprehended. (Daniele Bennati/ANSA via AP)

Relatives and parents arrive to a school in San Donato Milanese, near Milan, Italy, March 21, 2019 where some children were taken after a bus driver abducted them. A bus driver in northern Italy abducted 51 schoolchildren and their chaperones Wednesday and took them on an hourlong drive, then set the vehicle on fire when he was stopped by a Carabinieri blockade, officials said. Officers broke the glass in the back door of the bus and got all the passengers to safety without serious injury before the flames destroyed the vehicle. (Daniel Dal Zennaro/ANSA via AP)

MILAN – The leader of Italy's 5-Star Movement says the country should grant citizenship to a 13-year-old Egyptian boy hailed as a hero for alerting police that he and his middle school classmates had been abducted by their bus driver.

Luigi Di Maio said Thursday that Ramy Shehata "put his life at risk to save that of his classmates," and that he would ask Italy's premier to confer citizenship for special merit.

The boy's father immigrated in 2001 and Ramy was born in Italy. He is credited with helping save his classmates by calling authorities on a phone that was missed when the driver collected their devices.

Law enforcement officers stopped the bus near Milan, and freed the 51 children and their chaperones before the driver set it on fire.

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