Gardaí are investigating the hijacking of a bus by a group of teenagers, who subsequently led the driver into a planned ambush on a busy route in Limerick city.
The incident comes just days after a female bus driver was left traumatised when she was shot in the face by a child with an air gun on the same bus route.
Condemning the hijacking, Stephen Nugent of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) said a group of youths boarded the bus on Sunday and threatened to shoot the driver with what was believed to be air gun if he did not take them to a location away from his route, which was from Kilmallock Road to Pineview in Limerick City.
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Mr Nugent said the gang also refused to pay for tickets.
“They wanted to travel from one side of the estate to the other. They got on the bus and wouldn’t pay their fare basically. And if the driver didn’t carry them to where they wanted to go, they were going to shoot him,” Mr Nugent said. “The driver was terrified, so he brought them up to where they wanted to go.”
Mr Nugent said that when the bus reached the off-route location, it was ambushed by a waiting group of youths, who pelted it with bricks and stones.
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Gardaí confirmed they are investigating a “public order incident” on the 303 bus route in the John Carew Park area at about 4.30pm on Sunday.
A Garda spokeswoman said that “investigations are ongoing”.
Bus services in the Carew Park and O’Malley Park areas have been temporarily suspended due the spate of attacks, but it is understood talks are currently ongoing between Bus Éireann and the NBRU to resume services to Carew Park only.
The NBRU has said that there will be no resumption of services in the O’Malley Park area until issues surrounding anti-social behaviour are addressed.
Until recently, bus services in O’Malley Park between 5pm and midnight were accompanied by a security car, according to Mr Nugent. “That came under attack also a couple of weeks ago,” he said.
Last Friday in which a female bus driver on the same route was shot in the face with an air gun by a boy after refused to pay his fare.
On the same 303 route, a bus driver found razor blades shoved into a number of seats on a bus during a routine inspection.
The incident was referred to Bus Éireann and An Garda Síochána, who both confirmed they were investigating.
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