Claim: Footage of a fight between a man and a bus driver in San Ġwann is recent.

Verdict: The fight took place in November 2016 and was widely reported at the time. 

A video shared on Facebook on Wednesday showing a fight between a bus driver and passenger quickly spread across social media, with over 130 people sharing the original post and hundreds of others expressing their shock at the incident.

However, the video is not recent and the incident actually took place back in 2016.

This is different from a separate video showing a similar fight between two drivers in Santa Venera, which police confirmed took place on Wednesday afternoon.

As any driver can attest, road rage is unfortunately not a rare sight in Malta, with recent reports including cases of drivers firing weapons and assaulting cyclists.

Video shared on a local Facebook group

The San Gwann video was shared on Wednesday by a Facebook group called Bużullotti – Malta, a popular group with over 61,000 followers. The post drily describes the video as a “fight in San Gwann”, asking readers to send in their comments.

The footage was shared on a local Facebook post and quickly spread across social media.

While many readers wrote in to express their shock at the fight, blaming it on the searing heat, several others pointed out that this was old footage.

Unprovoked attack

The video shows a man assaulting a bus driver alongside his stopped bus on San Ġwann’s Tal-Balal road. The assailant holds the bus driver in a headlock as a man and woman make a futile attempt to calm him down and release the driver.

The incident dates back to November 2016, when shocked onlookers watched a man suddenly exit his car, seemingly unprovoked, and assault the driver through the bus window before hauling the driver out of the bus.

CCTV footage from the bus showed the driver frantically attempting to report the incident over the phone before he was pulled out of the bus.

The fight eventually died down as the assailant returned to his car and drove off before wardens arrived on the scene. No serious injuries were reported.

The assailant was later identified as a then-28-year-old man from Qormi.

Times of Malta reported on the incident back when it took place in 2016.

The incident was widely reported at the time, with Malta Public Transport saying that they were “shocked at this vicious attack on one of our drivers”.

Police said that they are aware that the video is currently being shared on social media, confirming that this is not a recent incident.

Verdict

While the fight in the video really did take place, the footage is not recent. The fight was widely reported by several local media houses, including Times of Malta, when it took place in November 2016.

Police also confirmed that the footage is not recent.

The claim is therefore misleading, as although the claim may, in itself, be partly or entirely true, it is presented in a manner that is not representative of the facts within a broader context.

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