A man has been charged after allegedly assaulting police during a frenzied attempt to hijack a bus packed with tourists in Adelaide.
The man allegedly walked onto a chartered coach, which had about 26 passengers onboard, and tried to drive it away from the Franklin Street depot just before 6am today.
The bus was supposed to be heading to South Australia’s Flinders Ranges for a four-day trip, but the man allegedly demanded to be driven to Geelong in Victoria.
What came next shocked the bus driver.
“I have had 20 years on buses and that is probably the most brutal attack I have seen,” bus driver Tom Christy said.
When Christy refused, the man allegedly jumped into the driver’s seat and tried to start the bus, but failed. That’s when the bus driver called police.
Officers asked the man to leave the bus but he allegedly refused.
They then tried to remove him from the seat, when he allegedly punched two officers in the head repeatedly. He also allegedly gouged one officer’s eye.
Officers then tried to use capsicum spray to get him to stop, however, he continued to try and drive the bus away.
More police arrived and a third officer was allegedly kicked in the head and suffered a split lip.
Passengers said the man allegedly tried to reach for a police gun several times.
“I jumped up and tried to help them to try and stop him because I thought he was going to pull the officers eye out,” passenger Steven Egel said.
Meanwhile, capsicum spray filled the vehicle.
“We were all coughing and nearly vomiting. It was horrible,” Anita Egel said.
Police Dog Edge was then called in to help remove the man from the bus, but the dog was also allegedly assaulted and his handler was punched in the face.
During the saga, the man could be heard shouting: “They’re trying to kill me.”
A taser was eventually fired at the man, but police were still unable to remove him from the driver’s seat.
He was pepper sprayed again, before he was finally able to be removed from the bus and arrested.
It took seven officers to hold the man down before paramedics took him away.
The 28-year-old man was taken to hospital for a medical assessment before he was charged for assaulting police and attempting to steal the bus.
Two police officers were taken to hospital for treatment, one with an eye injury and the other with a head injury.
None of the passengers were injured and they were able to resume their travel plans four hours later.