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Remains of the bus after the first attack last week
Photo: David Young / dpa
A public bus, on the way in the suburb of Newtownabbey in the Northern Irish capital, Belfast, was attacked by four men on Sunday evening and then set on fire.
As reported by the BBC and the Guardian, the kidnappers forced the passengers to disembark.
After everyone got out of the occupants, the red double-decker bus was set on fire on the street.
The fire brigade could no longer save the vehicle.
It is the second bus in a week to be mugged and burned down in Northern Ireland.
Last Monday two armed and masked men destroyed a bus west of Belfast in the same way.
The chairman of the ruling DUP party, Jeffrey Donaldson, condemned the act on Twitter.
“It's pointless.
Change is achieved through politics - not by burning down buses. «The motives of the arsonists were unclear.
Translink, the operator of the public bus routes, has suspended all bus and metro connections until Monday.
The driver concerned was badly damaged and would be supported by his colleagues, reports the Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
In the first incident of this type, two masked and armed men stormed the bus, which was traveling without passengers, and set it on fire.
The driver was able to save himself.
The attack in Newtownards east of Belfast highlights the dispute over Brexit special rules for the British province - the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.
Northern Ireland's infrastructure minister, Nichola Mallon, told the BBC that the attackers had "grumbled on the protocol" when they threatened the driver with a gun.
As various media reported, radical loyalists wanted to point out that a deadline of the Protestant unionist party DUP expired on Monday.
Trouble over the Northern Ireland Protocol
The DUP is threatening to withdraw from the unity government with the Catholic-Republican party Sinn Féin if there are no serious changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The DUP as well as the likewise loyalist UUP condemned the act.
The protocol is intended to ensure that there will be no hard border with Ireland after Brexit, thus avoiding new conflicts in the former civil war region.
However, it did create a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Unionists are calling for the protocol to be abolished because they fear trade barriers and alienation.
In April, therefore, there were riots that lasted for days, mostly among Protestant loyalists.
jok / dpa
