A 54-year-old taxi driver was hospitalized after suffering a violent attack by a 35-year-old passenger following a dispute over a card payment. The incident began when the woman picked up the man in Kypseli and ended in Nea Ionia, outside his home, where the passenger attacked her and caused serious injury to her ear. The 35-year-old was arrested and is charged with grievous bodily harm and making threats. Audio recordings from the moment of the attack capture the intensity and panic, with the woman heard desperately calling for help. Bystanders rushed to the scene and attempted to restrain the attacker. The taxi driver was transported by ambulance to Elpis Hospital, after citizens helped her pull the taxi to the side of the road, as she was in a state of shock.
Read also: Nea Ionia: How the man who bit off a taxi driver’s ear was restrained (Video)
Nea Ionia: How the attack on the 54-year-old taxi driver unfolded
The 54-year-old had picked up the 35-year-old in Kypseli. When they arrived in Nea Ionia, near his home, a dispute broke out over the card payment terminal, as she explained the device could not get a signal and they needed to move to complete the payment. That is when the passenger attacked her. She described in detail what followed: “He told me ‘today is your last day, I’m going to kill you,’ and he grabbed me by the throat and pinned me against the seat. He put his mouth on my ear and kept biting me — non-stop, continuously. The pressure of him biting and me pulling, and then I heard a ‘crack’ and my ear was severed by his teeth. But I broke free, managed to get out of the taxi, fell into the road and screamed ‘help, he’s cut off my ear.'”
An eyewitness described how the 35-year-old was restrained until police arrived: “I went straight at him, pulled him toward me, grabbed him and pinned him to the ground. Everyone piled on top of him and within a minute the police arrived. As I was trying to restrain him, I saw he was covered in blood.”
The dispute over the card payment
The taxi driver also stated: “He was actually the one who suggested we move a little further down so the signal would come through, and in that calm moment he even spoke to me about patience. I didn’t realize he was both crazy and a cannibal. If my ear hadn’t been severed, he would have killed me — he would have strangled me. I picked up the piece of my ear that I found on the floor of my car and gave it to the police to put on ice so they could reattach it, but it couldn’t be reattached — my ear is now permanently disfigured.”
She had gone out to earn a day’s wages and ended up injured in hospital, after a journey that began as a routine passenger pickup and ended in a brutal attack with serious physical consequences.
Bystanders’ intervention proved decisive
The intervention of citizens in the area proved crucial, as they worked to restrain the 35-year-old and assist the woman immediately after the attack. According to witnesses, police officers on motorcycles and in patrol cars quickly arrived at the scene.
The 54-year-old has since been discharged from hospital, while the 35-year-old was arrested. He has been charged with grievous bodily harm and making threats.
