When fifth-form student Shara Towers* heard the first shot that was fired at the bus which was travelling along Slipe Road on Monday, she thought it was the sound of a hammer. In fact, she did not become alarmed until she saw a male student, who had been shot, fall into the seat right next to her.

Towers and two of her friends were aboard the coaster that was sprayed with bullets yesterday in what police believe was a spin-off from an altercation between the conductor and 'loader men' in Half-Way Tree.

Towers said, "As the bus crossed the light at Heroes Circle, the man fanned down the bus and the driver stopped for him. But di 'ductor saw when he pulled a gun, so he slammed the door and jumped on the people that were sitting next to him. Then the man began running beside the bus, and then he pointed the gun right by the door and started firing several shots."

She said motorists were frightened by the shots and traffic stalled, preventing the driver from escaping. The student said she was sitting immediately behind the students who were shot, but luckily managed to escape injury.

suspicious

"It was just chaos. Everybody was screaming because the man was still running beside the bus and the driver couldn't get to drive because of the traffic." Towers said that at first she had no idea what was transpiring, but became suspicious when she saw the conductor slam the door suddenly.

" At first it sounded like a hammer, but it was when the first person got shot that people started screaming," she said. Towers said the driver eventually managed to get to the police station, where all the passengers ran from the bus, leaving the injured persons behind. They were eventually taken to hospital by the police.

Towers, who returned to school yesterday, said she is a bit afraid of going back to the downtown area and of driving past the scene of the incident. She said, " I don't intend to sit in that seat again [where she was sitting] and I am afraid to drive there again. I know I have to get over it, but just not this week."

Towers was a student on the bus yesterday which was attacked by gunmen on Slipe Road in Kingston. Three students, two girls and a boy were shot and injured during the incident. Police report that the bus was travelling along the busy thoroughfare about 3:00 p.m. when the attack took place.

*Name changed