Eyewitness accounts of being held hostage on a Dublin bus by a man who had robbed a chemist's shop.
A man who robbed a chemist shop escaped a garda pursuit by hijacking a number 11A bus on the Lower Drumcondra Road in Dublin. He then held a woman hostage at knife-point for over two hours. Following a tense period of negotiation the man was persuaded to hand over the knife and gardaí escorted him from the bus.
About ten people, including some of children, were trapped on the top deck of the bus throughout the incident. One of the women describes her ordeal, saying once the man got onto the bus there was pandemonium. She felt the first ten minutes of the hijack were the worst as there was a lot of shouting and
We really didn’t know if he had a gun or what was wrong downstairs.
Another woman thinks the man seemed to have got on the bus through the emergency door. A third woman trapped upstairs says the hijacker was prevented from going to the upper deck of the bus by a policeman. She could hear everything that was happening downstairs and admits she was afraid. The children upstairs were also scared but the adults kept them calm by encouraging them to colour pictures.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 11 February 1984. The reporter is Linda Sherlock.
