This is the gon swimming moment when a gondola-load of tourists are tipped out into a freezing Venice canal after they all went to the same side to take pictures during a sightseeing trip.

The group of four’s gondola had capsized on the historic Rio de la Verona waterway in the Italian city’s San Marco neighbourhood on 3rd December.

Footage of the bizarre collapse shows the holidaymakers gasping for breath and clinging desperately to the upturned hull of the boat.

A second craft is seen coming to the rescue as its gondolier tries to haul the tourists out of the water.

One woman seemingly begged the boatman to take her mobile phone while she struggled to cling on to her heavy winter coat.

Local media reports that the boat was about to pass under a bridge as the gondolier had ordered his passengers to stay still.

Instead, they all shifted to one side of the gondola to get better pictures and overturned the flat-bottomed boat.

All the tourists fell into the water along with the gondolier, who managed to rescue one of the visitors and bring him to the bank.

He then returned to help the others, reports local media.

Temperatures on the day had sunk to freezing according to forecasters AccuWeather.