Taxis targeted by Breightmet vandals in violent attacks with bricks
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Image: Bolton News
TAXI drivers are being targeted with bricks in a spate of attacks by vandals, leaving one passenger needing stitches to their face.
On Thursday night, Metro Cars taxi driver Raja Talat Mahmood was driving along Winchester Way in Breightmet when his windscreen was smashed by a brick thrown at his car.
The incident occurred at around 10pm as he was travelling with a customer.
Mr Mahmood said: "It totally smashed the windscreen.
"I was thinking that some [glass] had gone in my eye."
The driver has encountered the vandals before.
He added: "It was a group of lads that are always there. They know the taxi is coming. They can see from a distance the taxi is coming because of the signs."
Mr Mahmood added: "I'm losing a lot of the work because I have to wait for the repairs. [The repairs] are going out of my pocket."
He said: "I'm so scared, anything bad could happen. We have elderly people. It could be you or it could be me in the taxi."
Image: Bolton News
Metro Cars say that Mr Mahmood's case was just one of many in the Thicketford Brow and Breightmet Community Church area.
Another driver, Mahmood Khan, had his car windows shattered by bricks on two occasions in the same place. One attack cost him £230 in repairs and a full weekend out of work.
He said: "It's every night. They're by the church because it's high up and they can smash things and run away. If you stop right there, they just throw more."
A spokesperson for Metro Cars said: "In the last couple of months, we would say it's about 25 to 30 cars it's happened to. It's very constant. It's more night time.
"We had one where [a brick] hit a passenger. The passenger has had to have stitches in his face. There was another where a woman had a two month-old with her in the back."
