Stagecoach has threatened to withdraw services from a troubled Oxford estate if yobs continue attacking its buses.

It follows an incident last Saturday, December 27, in Bayswater Road, Barton, when a group of youths hurled a brick at a 7A bus, smashing a window. There were several passengers on board, but none was injured.

Stagecoach Oxford operations manager James Freeman said: "It was one of a long series of these incidents. We're getting more problems in Barton than anywhere else.

"Obviously we're very concerned. They seem to be completely random. One's first instinct is to say 'should we be pulling out the service?'"

He said repairs put the bus out of service for two days, adding: "If we have to, we will withdraw the service, but that's the last resort because it will cause inconvenience to law-abiding people. We will not do that if at all possible."

Mr Freeman said there had also been two incidents in recent weeks in which side windows of the company's Oxford Tube coaches were smashed as they drove along the A40 at Sandhills, near Barton.

The attacks appear to be motiveless acts of vandalism. Most have happened between 7pm and 11pm and are believed to have been carried out by teenagers from the Barton area.

Mr Freeman praised police for responding quickly to each incident but said if they were not on the scene when the attacks actually happened there was little they could do.

Thames Valley Police spokesman Paul Anthem said no-one had been arrested for Saturday's incident.

He said: "We do carry out patrols and hope to pick up on any offences but we can't be there all the time and in that context we do rely on the public to be vigilant.

"We treat such cases very seriously. Not only are they anti-social, they can also be very dangerous, and we take action in the courts wherever possible."

The incidents are the latest in a series of attacks on buses in Barton and Headington.

Last month the doors of an Oxford Bus Company vehicle were badly damaged by a brick thrown in an attack in Gladstone Road, Headington.

In November both the OBC and Stagecoach suspended services in Barton one evening after buses came under attack in separate incidents when bricks and snooker balls were hurled at the vehicles.

There was another spate of attacks in the area last February. In one incident, a 51-year-old OBC driver was struck on the head by a piece of concrete thrown through the open doors of his bus at a junction on the estate.