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Passengers were left out in the cold after young hooligans smashed a window of a Dublin Bus leaving the company having to divert from the area.

The 77a was rerouted away from Killinarden near Tallaght last night with one passenger saying the problem is a regular occurrence between Killinarden and Jobstown.

A picture sent to Dublin Live shows the window completely smashed with the passenger saying nobody was injured.

However, they also said instances like this have become so common they feel it's only a matter of time before somebody will get hurt.

The smashed bus forced the route to be diverted with passengers having to disembark and walk the rest of the line themselves or go to stops out of the area as the next buses boycotted the blackspot.

Dublin Bus confirmed the incident but said that the level of damage to buses has decreased in recent years.

A spokesperson said: "We can confirm that there was an anti-social behaviour incident involving Route 77a last night.

"Dublin Bus operates a fleet of 1,000 buses with more than 400,000 customer journeys a day.

"Last year we carried 139 million customers and we will have carried 145 million customers by the end of 2018.

"While such a large scale operation is challenging, the level of anti-social behaviour incidents involving Dublin Bus was down 18% in 2018 (December 2017 to December 2018).

"This is due, in part, to our commitment to embrace and foster community relations while also implementing physical mechanisms that protect our customers and employees who avail of our services.

"We have a strong and close working relationship with An Garda Síochána and have set up a number of community forums in different areas across the city.

"Dublin Bus operates a Schools Education Programme which involves educating young people about the importance of the bus in their lives and in their local community.

"The work of our School and Community Co-ordinators has also proven highly successful in encouraging young people to respect their bus and has assisted greatly in the reduction of incidents of anti-social behaviour.

"Incidents of anti-social behaviour and vandalism on buses have also decreased in recent years since the introduction of the exact fare system, CCTV and security screens at the drivers cab.

"The entire Dublin Bus fleet is fully fitted with CCTV cameras with up to ten internal cameras and two external cameras fitted on the more modern vehicles in the fleet .

"Each vehicle is equipped with a radio which facilitates immediate contact to our Central Control Centre. All Dublin Bus employees are fully trained on the comprehensive procedures for dealing with specific challenging situations including anti-social behaviour."

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