Three elderly train passengers were left bloodied and bruised after a man allegedly began attacking commuters at random.
A 27-year-old man has been banned from public transport for three months and charged with three counts of assault and affray following the incident in Adelaide on Friday morning.
He had boarded a city-bound train with a beer in his hand before allegedly attacking three elderly men on the Gawler line.
Phil Fiskin, one of the men who was allegedly attacked, said he will “never travel on public transport again” after he was punched and spat on in front of his wife.
“He yelled and ranted at me saying I was a racist pig… and then (allegedly) spit blood in my face,” said Fiskin, who suffered a black eye. He told 7News.
‘He allegedly hit me with the belt. I was against the window and the chair, I couldn’t even lift my hands.’
Mr Fiskin was allegedly punched several times in the head before an 89-year-old passenger was attacked.
“He came running down and bang!” John Webb said.
Phil Fiskin (pictured) was one of three elderly men allegedly attacked by a 27-year-old man from Elizabeth Downs on Adelaide’s Gawler train line at 11.30am on Friday.
Officers arrested the Elizabeth Downs man (pictured) at the Elizabeth South station and later charged him with three counts of assault and affray.
“Then he grabbed my bike and threw it against the railing. He’s an idiot, a lunatic.”
Police were called to Elizabeth South station when the train was forced to stop, along with paramedics who treated an elderly man for minor injuries.
It wasn’t until a father intervened and wrestled the alleged attacker to the ground that his reign of terror ended.
Another uninjured passenger, Jean Watson, said the man who confronted the suspected attacker was “defending his family.”
She called him a “hero” and thanked him on behalf of everyone else on the train.
Trains on the Gawler line were delayed by around half an hour due to the incident.
The Elizabeth Downs man is due to appear in Elizabeth Magistrates Court on August 16.
