Train passengers scared by angry-looking clown

A teenager wearing a clown mask scared rail passengers in Victoria, Australia, on Saturday, prompting questions as to whether disguises should be allowed on public transport. V-Line passenger Karen said the "creepy looking" clown intimidated other passengers and was "menacing towards young females". "I was taking the train down to Southern Cross to have lunch with a girlfriend down there, I sat back expecting the usual relaxing trip, put my ear pods in, I usually doze a little bit," she said. She said the man – wearing a suit, a clown mask and carrying a suitcase – got on the train at either Ardeer or Deer Park in Melbourne's western suburbs. "It was a very scary face, it was a clown mask but a very angry clown," she said. "At first I thought, well surely they're not going to let a man on a train with a mask, because what if he was wearing a balaclava or something like that?"



 Karen said the man entered the train's front carriage a few stations later, walking down the aisle slowly and silently. "He slowly walked along the isle until he got to the driver's door, stood, stopped, turned around and just watched all of us, stared us all down, everybody in the carriage," she said. She said all sorts of things were running through her mind. "What do I do? What's he got in the bag? What do I do if he pulls out a gun? It was a bit like being in a horror movie to be honest," she said. Karen said she was surprised that the man was not confronted by staff when the train pulled up at Southern Cross. She said he walked through the gate onto the concourse where he was "menacing towards young females". "The strange part was that he was never pulled up, nobody stopped him, nobody said 'hey mate, take off the mask'. It sort of makes you think, what sort of security is there?" V-Line spokesperson Colin Tyrus said the train's conductor had investigated reports of a masked person after being alerted to his presence at Sunshine.

"The clown man at this stage was just standing near the toilet and seemed to be just minding his own business," said Mr Tyrus. "There was no threat that the conductor could perceive from this particular gentleman." He said he understood that other passengers could have found the masked man unnerving; however, when the conductor saw him he was "just standing there". "People might have, I think it's called coulrophobia, a fear of clowns," he said. He says all V-Line staff are trained in the principles of security and police are called whenever a passenger is considered to be disruptive or threatening. "We report anything that is suspicious," he said. He encouraged rail passengers to alert the conductor whenever they felt threatened. "On the modern trains... there's a duress button in every carriage where the conductor can be alerted," Mr Tyrus said. He said there was nothing in the transport regulations, to stop people wearing masks or disguises on public transport.



"We often have, actually, people with masks travelling on trains; in fact, I got on a metro train the other weekend and there were a few zombies on board," he said. A review of transport regulations is underway and public comment is being called for. "If anyone wants to suggest that masks or other disguises be banned from public transport, now is opportunity for everyone to have their say," Mr Tyrus said. Later on, a man named Andrew said the person in question was his 14-year-old stepson. "He goes to NICA [circus school] over in Prahran and does circus arts, and on the weekends he's working on his different clown personas and costumes," Andrew said. "He's six-foot-three... but he's only 14 so he's probably not quite aware of the impact it may have on other people." Andrew said he "had no idea" that his stepson was wearing his mask on the train. "I think that his teacher will be having some words with him, and I know we will as well," Andrew said. "He likes the attention, and so the issue now is going to be how to push upon him the seriousness of it without him going off going 'wow, this is really cool'."