Bus surfers and vandals strike

PRETEEN vandals may be to blame for trashing 11 buses using fire extinguishers after a break in at an Ipswich depot.

Youngsters may have been searching for syringes after they left the buses' first aid kits strewn around the ransacked Constantine Road site.

Now bus chefs are stepping up security by hiring a round-the-clock guard and installing CCTV cameras.

Vandals broke climbed over a fence in West End Road in the early hours before breaking into buses in the deserted depot.

Ipswich Bus managing director Malcolm Robson: "They caused about £800 worth of damage by using fire extinguishers to break the rear windows of 11 buses. According to police they might have been children."

All the buses are now back on the road.

Mr Robson went on: "We would have lost a lot of services were it not for the fact Monday was a bank holiday and the schools were on holiday."

Police are appealing for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area to come forward.

A spokeswoman said: "We received a call at 9.25am on Sunday reporting damage to 11 buses."

Anyone with information should call Ipswich police on 01473 613500.

The news comes as yobs stunned bus passengers by leaping from a shelter to the roof of the vehicle.

The youths were standing on top of the shelter outside the community centre in Dickens Road, Ipswich.

And as the 11am number five service from Chantry to Ipswich came to a stop a number of them leapt on to the bus roof.

They remained there for several minutes, subjecting the bus driver to a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse.

Mr Robson said: "This seems a very stupid and dangerous game to play and I've never heard of it happening before.

"Fortunately, the driver realised what was happening and just waited there when they jumped on to the roof. He just took the abuse and sat there.

"We've never had this problem before and Dickens Road is not usually a problem area."