Two bus drivers, one of them a black Maltese woman, were insulted and attacked in Mġarr on Thursday evening in what Arriva described as a “shameful act of misguided racist aggression”.

The police confirmed that the incident took place close to Għajn Tuffieħa on the road leading from Manikata to Mellieħa at 8pm. They said a 26-year-old black woman driver, a Maltese national, was at the receiving end of what the woman reported as being a barrage of racist insults.

The incident started when the black driver stopped the bus by the side of the narrow road to make way for a car, a white Golf, coming from the opposite direction. According to Arriva, a pickup truck that arrived on the scene was unable to drive past and its driver started arguing with the bus driver, insulting her about her skin colour and shouting: “Go back to your country!”

The man, Arriva reported, hurled expletives at the bus driver and made “extremely vulgar” gestures. She immediately called the police.

The pickup driver was soon joined by other car drivers, also blocked behind the bus and the Golf car. They too hurled racist abuse at her, saying she should return to her country and to “Go back to Marsa!”

In the meantime another bus drove in to the jam and Arriva said that the people there started banging on its windows and kicking the vehicle. They yelled insults at the male Italian driver, resident in Malta, and called him “Muslim”, Arriva said.

It said that when the Italian driver opened the bus door, a woman climbed on board and physically assaulted him, hitting him and punching him on the shoulders.

Arriva said none of its drivers retaliated. When the police arrived on scene the people dispersed.

Arriva’s operations director, Kim Purcell, described the incident as “ugly” and said the company was supporting its employees: “Arriva is unequivocally stating that all aggressions will be reported to the police and drivers will receive full assistance in any eventual court proceedings.”

“All our buses are fitted with CCTV cameras, which will be used as evidence.

“The company will not tolerate any type of violence, especially racism,” Ms Purcell said, pointing out that drivers were hard workers who often worked “in difficult situations”.

The incident came in the same week that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said he was considering the option of sending migrants who landed in Malta on Tuesday back to Libya. The move was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.