A TAXI driver has compared a night out in Bolton town centre to ‘Jurassic Park’ after £1,000 of damage was caused to his car ‘for no reason’.

Asif Musa was picking up a female passenger in the early hours of yesterday morning in Bradshawgate when a man launched the attack on his private hire vehicle.

The 38-year-old from Great Lever has been a taxi driver for five years and said the man ‘came from nowhere’ and started kicking the vehicle outside Shah’s takeaway.

The incident is believed to have caused around £1,000 of damage to the car and has left Mr Musa shaken.

The man came out of a backstreet and his friends were trying to stop him.

Mr Musa reported that the man fell over and did not appear to like his friends holding him back before he lashed out at the car.

The incident is not the first time Mr Musa has faced trouble while picking up passengers from a night out in the town centre.

He said: “To be honest it does happen quite often in Bradshawgate but there was no apparent reason for this. He was out of order and raging and his friends were holding him back. He came to the car and started kicking it and I drove off.

“He lashed out at my vehicle for some reason. I was just trying to do my job but what if someone had been in the car? A window could have been smashed. Unfortunately this is a Bolton night.

“You have got to always be on your guard, it’s Jurassic Park. It is very distressing.”

Once he had got a safe distance away he called the police.

Mr Musa was told the man then jumped into a vehicle, which drove off as police began to pursue it around Bradshawgate before another police vehicle arrived.

Anti-social behaviour and crime has caused concerns in the town centre in the past but work has been done to tackle the problem.

The same man is believed to have been in Shah’s causing trouble prior to the incident, and Mr Musa said he was seen ‘throwing food around’.

Mr Musa said: “There were two friends stood outside and I was speaking to them and a load of other young men, I’m saying it is not for you, it’s for the lady inside.

“She was supposed to get in before the vicious attack, she pulls at him as well.

“I was shocked, it is really distressing, I’m just trying to do my job. I feel like they lash out at me but what have I done? All I’m trying to do is take someone safely home and young ladies who want to feel safe and this is how you get rewarded.

“I think this is how firefighters and other emergency services will feel. This same sort of feeling.”

Steve Hoyle, chairman of Bolton Pubwatch and vice-chairman of Best Bar None the schemes are making things safer inside venues but they can’t do a lot about what goes on in the street.

The Best Bar None scheme, which is aimed at encouraging bars to work together towards a night time economy, is recognised as helping reduce violent crime in venues in the town by 30 per cent.

The Bolton News has contacted police for details of the incident.