24/09/2013 00:00
TW
0
By Humphrey Carter

PALMA
PALMA taxi associations were yesterday calling for greater protection after the National Police confirmed that three people were arrested in connection with the violent seizure of a taxi earlier this month.

Taxi driver safety and security has become a burning issue over recent years and the city's taxi associations claim that this latest incident highlights the growing risks cabbies face.

The National Police serious crime squad reported yesterday that on September 9 at 10pm, three men flagged down and got into a taxi in Plaza Carlos I and asked the cabbie to take them to Son Llatzer Hospital on the outskirts of the capital.

However, in the middle of the journey, the cabbie was apparently violently assaulted by the three men.
He was grabbed fiercely round the neck before the men stole his watch and gold chain and ordered him to stop the taxi and get out of the vehicle. The taxi was eventually found abandoned in the Son Banya shanty town and drugs den and, after an in-depth investigation, the three men, all known “dangerous criminals” were arrested.