Passenger held after bus attack

A 65-year-old man has been detained for impeding a bus driver, Shanghai police said.

They said the man, Ma, had asked the driver to turn on the air-conditioner, and when there was no response he bent over the driver to close a window on his left side and hit him in the head when the driver tried to push him away. 

The incident took place at 8:30pm on June 29 when the bus was on Jiaotong Road in Putuo District. Some of the passengers pulled Ma away from the driver and police were called. 

The driver safely stopped the bus near the intersection of Jiaotong Road and Guangquan Road and no one was injured, police said.

Ma, who is now under detention, told police that the driver of the No. 744 bus was supposed to turn on the air-conditioner because it was an “air-conditioned bus” and such buses are supposed to have the air-conditioner on after June 1 in Shanghai. However, he regretted his actions. 

Ma could face a charge of endangering public safety with dangerous means, police said, a charge that carries a sentence of three to 10 years in prison.