A man attacked a De Lijn bus with an iron rod in the Dutch town of Hulst close to the Belgian border on Wednesday evening, less than a week after another Belgian driver was stabbed in the same town.
The incident took place on Wednesday evening around 8:00 PM, according to the Dutch regional newspaper BN De Stem. The De Lijn bus was unable to make a turn at an intersection, as a car was standing in the middle of it. A man got out of the car and smashed the bus' windscreen with an iron rod.
The bus driver, in turn, took the fire extinguisher from his bus and emptied it in the direction of the man, who got back into his car and left at high speed. The bus driver was not harmed. The Dutch police found the car around 8:45 PM. In it were a man and a woman, who have both been arresstated for interrogation.
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Witnesses have confirmed the story to the police, and the dashboard cam footage of the bus will also confirm the events, according to the driver, but the footage is still being investigated by the police.
This is the second incident with a De Lijn bus in under a week in Hulst, when a bus driver was stabbed by a group of fighting youths who started picking fights with other passengers and hammering on the windows.
"This is not a problem line or region," said a De Lijn spokesperson to Het Nieuwsblad, adding that the two incidents do not seem related. "However, to increase the passengers' sense of safety, we will send extra inspectors around in Hulst," they added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
