A MOTHER has described her children’s near-miss after an “industrial-sized” padlock was hurled through the window of a bus in Basingstoke.

Becky Dennis, 28, was on board the number 3 bus with her six-year-old son Samuel and her three-year-old daughter Lily when the incident took place at 3pm on April 24.

She said: “We had just stopped at a bus stop in Timberlake Road, and we were approaching the Victory Roundabout.

“Suddenly there was a huge bang, and my first thought was that someone had gone into the back of the bus. It was not until I heard all the kids screaming that I realised what had happened.

“I turned around and there were three kids sat together, including my son, and they were all showered in glas,s and on the floor was an industrial-sized padlock.”

The padlock had smashed an emergency exit window to the right hand side of the bus. The driver drove to the bus stop in Alencon Link before flagging down a police car. The children were not injured.

Miss Dennis, of Bolton Crescent, South Ham, had just picked up Samuel from Kings Furlong Infants School, in Upper Chestnut Drive, and was travelling to Basingstoke town centre when the incident took place.

She believes that the padlock was thrown from Glebe Gardens, part of which borders Timberlake Road.

Miss Dennis said: “I cannot believe that someone would be so stupid as to do this. I do not understand their mentality.

“They must have known that throwing a padlock at a bus could have hurt someone.”

Helen Martin, marketing manager at Stagecoach, said the incident is now being investigated by the police.