This Thursday, April 14, the police opened an investigation following a violent altercation that took place in a De Lijn bus between controllers and a 19-year-old young woman in Gentbrugge.
The other travelers on the bus filmed the scene: we can see that two young girls, sisters, were checked by two controllers on the bus. According to information from De Lijn transmitted to the Nieuwsblad, one of the two young women, the 19-year-old one, did not have a ticket, but wanted to buy one by text message.
The two controllers asked the traveler for her identity card, to fine her. But then a violent altercation broke out between the controllers and the traveler, who claimed to have paid on time. She didn’t want to give her ID. “I felt very bad and I lacked space. I choked for five seconds,” the 19-year-old said. “I asked them to give me space, but they didn’t. Then I tried to push them back with my back, maybe they thought I wanted to run away,” she adds.
The images also allow one of the controllers to be heard saying: “I’m fed up, I’m going to throw you on the ground”. A fight ensued and the young woman was finally arrested. “A big man threw me once morest the ceiling and the mirror of the bus, following which I hit my head”, says the young woman once more.
Also according to the Nieuwsblad, the police have been notified and an investigation has been opened. “We are waiting for the investigation before acting,” said Marco Demerling, spokesman for De Lijn.