A knife-wielding man caused fear and panic on board a Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) bus yesterday when he threatened to stab passengers. When a San Fernando PTSC bus, HCD 1472, headed for Port-of-Spain on the northbound lane of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway, neared Claxton Bay, around 1.10 pm, a man in his late 40s or early 50s, sitting three rows to the rear of the bus suddenly got up and whipped out a large knife from his waist and accused a male passenger sitting behind him of harassing him.
The passenger denied that saying he was just talking to his girlfriend. Brandishing his weapon menacingly, he said he was not afraid of him and would use his knife on him. Fear and panic erupted among the passengers, among them children, as they shouted desperately in a feverish attempt to draw the attention of the driver and bus marshall, who were oblivious of the situation, at the front of the articulated bus.
On hearing the screams of the passengers to open the doors, the bus driver pulled the bus to the side of the road. When the knife-wielder saw the driver, marshall and several male passengers were going to confront him, he ran out the front entrance of the bus.
Jennifer Joseph, 37, a security officer from Princes Town, who was sitting at the rear of the bus, still visibly shaking from the ordeal told the T&T Guardian that the armed man came with the intent to kill. She said: "This was very frightening. I felt threatened. He could have done serious damage and stabbed people.
"It could have been a hostage or terrorist situation if he put that knife to somebody's neck and said, 'pass money or phone.' "What defence do we have on that bus? You have one unarmed marshall and a busload of frightened passengers. We didn't expect that on a bus. PTSC don't have people with guns and knives on a bus."
She said it was a cause for concern and made a complaint to PTSC and was now awaiting the results of the investigation. Joseph added: "We think crime just happens in our homes, business places and hot spots. We're on a bus. We thought it was safe, not like a maxi taxi where robberies and holdups take place, but not on a PTSC bus."
