Ticket Controller in Sofia Was Beaten by Three Girls without Valid Tickets

A ticket controller in the public transport in Sofia was beaten by three young women.

On 26^th of October, a team of ticket controllers identified three girls traveling without tickets on the 213 bus route. The controllers asked the girls to buy tickets but they refused. The passengers were then asked to get off the bus. Georgi Bogdanov explains that during the conversation the passengers were rather aggressive and used insulting words. They walked away without paying a fine and without a penalty ticket issued to them.

Few minutes later, the three ticket controllers were crossing a street when the girls returned and attacked Georgi. The girls pulled his bag, then hit him with a solid object. Another controller, Galina Stoyanova explained that her colleague fell on the ground and one of the girls was kicking him in the head several times.

The other two controllers and their manager, Borislav Simov, told BNT reporter on 27^th of October that their beaten colleague could not come for the TV interview because his condition deteriorated during the night, his eye and sinuses are swollen and his nose is bleeding.

Simov said that in 2016 there were 23 cases of aggression and violence towards public transport ticket controllers and there were several cases of threats with knives, bladed and pointed articles and threats for throwing acid.