LATEST: Bus fired at on Borders road

It has been revealed that this was not the first incident of its kind in the village.

Operations manager Roddy Perryman has described a similar attack two weeks ago.

He said: “On Sunday, January 17 our Service 60 bus which we run under contract for Scottish Borders Council was travelling eastbound at 8.10pm when it was struck by a missile on Greenlaw West High St, resulting in a smashed window three bays back on the offside.

“Luckily there were no passengers on board and the driver was fine albeit in a bit of shock.”

He went on: “Obviously the vehicle had to be taken out of service and it was then off the road for two days while a replacement window was sourced and cleaned up. The cost of the glass alone was in excess of £480 so it was a very costly accident but thankfully there were no injuries.”

But a week later (January 24) the Service 60 bus was again struck by a missile, travelling through Greenlaw heading east on the A6105 at around 5.30pm.

This time, two windows were smashed by what police describe as “lead pellets”.

Roddy said: “Very worryingly there were eight passengers on board the vehicle with one person sitting directly at the smashed window bay.

“Thankfully driver and passengers were okay, albeit in shock.

“Again this vehicle had to be taken out of service immediately and a second vehicle despatched to the scene to uplift the passenger’s and take them to their destinations.

“These horrendous acts of vandalism must not go unpunished, the consequences could have been truly awful.

“I must thank our staff who handled the situation really well on both occasions along with our customers who have been really understanding, the messages of support we received since these awful events have been really lovely.”

Police Scotland are currently investigating both incidents and anyone with any information should contact them.