Shocking video footage has emerged of the moment a commuter was kicked through the window of a double-decker bus, leaving him with a broken back.

The 43-year-old victim was hit with such force he crashed through a glass panel before falling around 10ft from the top deck to the road below, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

CCTV cameras installed on a following bus captured the violent incident in Finsbury Park, north London.

Driver Elliott explained how concerned passengers told him a fight had started on the top floor.


‘As I’m slowing down, I look in my nearside mirror and I see a body drop,’ he said.



‘I pull over and a lady comes up and tell me that someone’s got kicked out of a window. I call the ambulance and police and tell them what happened.

A man was kicked through the window of a double-decker bus (Picture: BBC)

‘I came out the bus and saw the guy in the street – he was in a bad way. He tried to get up but he had spinal injuries and started coughing up blood.’

The clip was shown on BBC2 programme The Route Masters: Running London’s Roads on Sunday.

‘It’s still shocking,’ Detective Constable Tony Barun, from the Metropolitan Police safer transport command unit, told the documentary.

‘Although we see violence every day, it’s our bread and butter, it’s still shocking to see something as graphic and violent as this.

‘We know these window can be kicked out with a great deal of effort, but to see someone kicked so hard that he actually goes through the window and it pops the window out of its frame – I’ve never seen that before.’

The family of the victim say they do not know if he will walk again following the December 2012 incident.

A 38-year-old man was charged with GBH with intent but was found not guilty at Wood Green crown court in August 2013.