LATEST NEWS: Police arrest and charge youth and deal with nine offenders after bad behaviour on estate
YOBS on a Bradford estate have wreaked havoc over the Easter weekend and are seemingly becoming even more brazen and destructive.
Bus company First West Yorkshire announced on Monday that its 645 service had been vandalised once more on the Ravenscliffe estate - the fourth time a bus has been attacked in less than three weeks.
The transport firm explained the service would no longer visit the area for the rest of the day.
It made it clear that it took that decision because its passengers and staff’s safety was its ultimate priority in this scenario.
The Ravenscliffe estate has been blighted with anti-social behaviour for the past month.
It is believed a group of youths, aged between seven and 15, are the source of the misery.
There are varying accounts of who they are and where they come from.
One thing that is beyond no doubt is the yobs have mainly been targeting the 645 bus that enters the estate by Ravenscliffe Avenue from Bradford, before leaving it via Redcar Road and onto New Line, back towards the city centre.
One mum, Toni Rice, 27, who has lived in Ravenscliffe on and off since she was 14, told the T&A two weeks ago the youngsters even engage in dangerous behaviour, such as throwing fireworks into the play park just off Rimswell Holt.
Mrs Rice uses the bus herself to get to her Government job and it is a vital service for the elderly or those with prams, who might struggle to get up to Harrogate Road - the route the 645 has been taking instead if it has to refuse to enter Ravenscliffe.
The latest case of vandalism was allegedly a lot more violent than previously.
On March 31, one of the bus’s windows was smashed by a group of youths throwing snowballs - which supposedly had stones in - at it; on April 4 another window on a 645 bus was broken by a stone that yobs had thrown; then on April 12 one of the buses was vandalised again.
This time, an eye-witness said two 645 buses were attacked within a short space of time. As one vehicle stopped due to damage - its two rear windows were smashed - a second was ambushed.
The shocked witness said a little boy was on board and he was shaking with fear – it was the second bus in a week he had been on where the windows were broken.
The witness then believes the youths went into Bradford city centre and caused even more damage.
They said the yobs smashed the 645 glass bus stop on Hall Ings, before running at another 645 bus on Market Street and isolated it so it was unable to move.
They added that the youths stole a number of red emergency window breaking hammers from buses over the Easter weekend.
This witness said there are currently eight buses in Bradford Interchange that are out of action due to damage.
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