From Bath stone to Brighton rocks

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A Sussex student was attacked last week when he gave chase to a gang of teenagers who stoned the coach in which he was a passenger.

The coach, on hire from Brighton & Hove Buses, was bringing 45 international students and two members of staff back to campus from a day trip to Bath on 9 November.

One of three vehicles to be attacked that night, the coach was hit at 8.45pm when it stopped at traffic lights at the junction of Coldean Lane and Lewes Road.

The youths - estimated to be 15 or 16 years old - used traffic cones and rubble from nearby roadworks as ammunition, with one stone smashing a window behind the coach driver.

A 28-year-old exchange student who was sitting at the front of the coach suffered minor eye and knee injuries when he went in pursuit of the offenders. "I just felt that something must be done," he recalls. "I thought I could catch a couple of them and bring them to justice." But he got more than he bargained for when the vandals started kicking and throwing punches.

As soon as police arrived on the scene, the youths ran off through an underpass at the junction and disappeared into the Moulsecoomb estate. The student and a police officer then scoured the estate by car but were unable to find the ringleader or any of the other gang members on the deserted streets.

The episode has failed to put the exchange student off similar outings in the future. He has signed up for International Office day trips to Cambridge and Canterbury, but says that he will probably sit at the back of the coach.

After the incident, which was only the latest in a series of similar attacks on vehicles from Brighton & Hove Buses, the company threatened to suspend services along the Lewes Road.

Managing director Roger French told the Evening Argus that he was seriously considering withdrawing services in the area, rather than risk the safety of passengers and drivers. As the Bulletin went to press, bus services to campus continued to operate.