Bayonne, France — French bus drivers brain dead after cruel attack by passengers who refused to wear face mask.
The incident took place around 7pm of Sunday night in Bayonne, southwest France, when the bus driver refused to let a group of anti-mask passengers on board.
Face masks have been made mandatory while using any type of French transportation, such as Taxi, Aeroplane and bus, due to the ongoing pandemic Covid-19.
When the bus driver refused to allow a man with a dog and 4 others -with no tickets or masks- in to the bus, a very unpleasant argument developed, voices were raised and then he was repeatedly punched and kicked, and the gang had escaped after leaving the driver with serious injuries.
When the driver was rushed to a nearby hospital and was placed in intensive care, he was already unconscious. On monday, the doctors declared him as “brain dead”
Meanwhile, the police tracked down the 30-year-old man with the dog, who later identified the other four attackers.
The attackers has been in police custody ever since and has been described as “down and outs on the margins of society – ones used to drinking heavily and taking drugs.”
A colleague of the deceased driver described him saying: “he was a decent and hardworking man who always looked after passengers”
“There has been a lot of tension over masks, because they are the law, but bus staff are not police, and we should not have to enforce the law,” he added.
The colleagues had also mentioned that recently there had been three other assaults related to masks but none of them were as brutal and serious as this one.
On monday, several of the driver’s colleagues refused to work in protest against the brutal attack.
The Mayor of Bayonne, Mayor Jean-Rene Etchegaray called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and for a punishment “severe enough” to serve as a warning to others.
“We have witnessed a particularly violent and barbaric act,” the Mayor stated.
