{"id":82199,"date":"2025-05-07T15:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T15:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/82199\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T15:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T15:42:17","slug":"woman-on-bus-targeted-in-racist-and-homophobic-attack-in-south-belfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/82199\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman on bus targeted in \u2018racist and homophobic\u2019\u00a0attack\u00a0in south Belfast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The incident occurred at around 8pm on May 4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/54690531-e9c7-45e7-beb8-b2ba4114b36b.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">The incident occurred at around 8pm on May 4<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">An MLA has denounced a \u201crepulsive\u201d attack on a bus in south Belfast which police are treating as a racially-motivated and homophobic hate crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It happened at around 8pm on Sunday as the Translink vehicle travelled from Ormeau Road between University Avenue and Bedford Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Police were alerted after the victim was allegedly targeted by another man and woman on the same bus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Three men who attempted to intervene were also verbally abused by the individuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">When the suspects were ordered to exit the public transport vehicle the woman threw a large bottle at one of the men leaving him with a cut on his lip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The PSNI is appealing for anyone who was on the bus \u2013 travelling the route from Ormeau Road taking in University Avenue, Botanic Avenue, Great Victoria Street, Bruce Street and Bedford Street \u2013 to contact detectives. <\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Inspector McCourt said enquiries are continuing &#8220;and at this time, these incidents are being treated as both racially and homophobic-motivated hate crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cWe are appealing to anyone who was on board the bus service at the time of the incident and who may be able to assist with this investigation to contact us on 101 quoting reference number 1161 05\/05\/25.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Sinn F\u00e9in MLA Deirdre Hargey said there was \u201cno place in our communities for this reprehensible behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The south Belfast MLA said: \u201cThis is a repulsive incident and I want to extend my solidarity to those who this alleged abuse was directed at,\u201d said Ms Hargey<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cThere is no place in our communities for this reprehensible behaviour, and those involved must be brought to justice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cWhether it\u2019s racism, homophobia, or other vile attitudes, we must do everything we can to eradicate these stains on our society.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom5 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cI echo calls from police for anyone who may be able to assist with the investigation to come forward with information.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The incident occurred at around 8pm on May 4 An MLA has denounced a \u201crepulsive\u201d attack on a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,39800,1144,1610,11528,17793,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-82199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-deirdre-hargey","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland","12":"tag-sinn-fein","13":"tag-south-belfast-news","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114467316926817581","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}