MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti) - A Sydney school bus carrying Jewish children aged 5-12 was terrorized by a gang of anti-Semite teenagers, The Times of Israel has reported.
“She said: ‘Hey Mummy, please help us, there are eight strange men who have been let on to a school bus and they are screaming ‘Heil Hitler! Kill the Jews!’ They want to cut out our throats.’” Jackie Blackburn said, recalling a phone call she received from one of her daughters on the bus, as reported by Australia’s Daily Telegraph.
The bus carrying two-dozen children from three Jewish schools, Mt. Sinai College, Emmanuel School and Moriah College, was boarded by the rowdy teenage boys at a bus stop in the wealthy eastern suburb of Randwick, CNN reported. Two girls on the bus, Noa and Anais Stanton told 7 News Australia that in addition to the anti-Semitic slurs, the boys offered drugs to children on the bus and were holding bottles of alcohol.
New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies President Yair Miller told reporters that following the event guardians would be required to travel on school buses.
Waverly Police Department Superintendent Jason Box confirmed to CNN affiliate Sky News that "six juvenile males boarded the bus ... and made offensive and threatening comments towards approximately 25 schoolchildren." The youths reportedly used student bus passes to get on board and some of them were wearing school uniforms, Box added.
Sky News reported the teens are believed to be between the ages of 15 and 17 years old.
Police in Australia arrested five teens over the incident, but released them into the custody of their parents, without pressing charges. The incident is pending a further investigation, Breaking Israel News reported.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry claimed levels of anti-Semitism are on the rise in Australia. Since 1989 there has been a correlation between increased incidents of anti-Semitism in Australia with the escalation of conflicts in the Middle East, according to the council. Similar incidents include an attack on an Israeli rabbi visiting Perth on August 4, as well as the assault of a Jewish man walking in Melbourne this July.
