Police and paramedics rushed to the scene of a terrifying CS gas attack on a bus packed with schoolchildren, a report in the Herts Advertiser said 10 years ago.
A hooded gang crept alongside the double-decker bus, parked outside the Cotswold Outdoor shop in Victoria Street, St Albans, and sprayed the gas through a window, filling the vehicle with fumes.
The October 19, 2006 edition quoted an eyewitness saying he saw children suddenly come rushing off the bus, “shouting and screaming. Lots of them were rubbing their eyes because they were so sore”.
As a result, pupils from St Albans School, St Albans Girls’ School, Loreto College and Townsend Church of England School were left stranded, waiting for parents to collect them.
Townsend headteacher Andrew Wellbeloved said: “We are shocked that it seems children can’t even travel safely on a public bus.”
Three people were later arrested – two men from St Albans, and a youth from London Colney.
In Harpenden, the family of World War Two fighter pilot David Wheeler was in mourning after his death at the age of 84.
After learning to fly Tiger Moths both in the UK and Canada, he graduated onto Hurricanes and later to Spitfires.
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