A shocking Snapchat clip captures the moment teenagers cling to the back of a moving Edinburgh bus in a dangerous bus surfing stunt on Princes Street.
Footage uploaded to social media on Thursday shows two hooded youths gripping onto the advertisement board positioned on the rear of an Edinburgh Lothian vehicle with their knees bent and bodies dipped.
The footage emerged the same day as an eye-witness reported seeing three teens in grey tracksuits hanging off the back of a moving double decker in Hanover Street as it made its way through the city centre with stunned shoppers watching on.
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The eye-witness said: “I saw these three lads just stood in the road behind a bus at a bus stop. They looked a bit shifty and were looking around all the time – it looked pretty weird.
"Then all of a sudden, they jumped on the back of the bus and held on as it pulled away and over George Street. They got off but then chased it and leapt back on again as it went across Queen Street – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
The sightings are the latest in a worrying trend which has prompted police to speak out previously on safety concerns.
A Police Scotland spokesman also at the time said: “All road users have a responsibility to ensure their behaviour does not put themselves, or others, at risk of harm. Failure to do so could have very serious consequences.”
In August last year a trio of youngsters were spotted hanging onto the back of a bus in Niddrie, while footage from way back in 2018 captures a child sailing through the Meadowbank area by balancing on the back of a 26 bus to Tranent.
Another video shows a teen wearing a baseball cap bus surfing on a number 26 as he proceeds to go one handed and wave to bemused onlookers as they watch on in horror.
The move has been described as “extremely foolish” and it has been warned that carrying out such actions could potentially cause a risk to life.
A comparable stunt of ‘tram surfing’ has also been documented from around the capital with recordings from 2019 revealing a teenager to be relying on the heavy mode of transport to pull him along the street.
Managing Director of Edinburgh Trams Lea Harrison said at the time: “Tram surfing of any kind is both dangerous and irresponsible and can have life changing consequences. If you are travelling with us and see this behaviour we urge you to contact a member of our on board team. “
