A BUS driver needed hospital treatment after a brick was thrown through her window - shattering glass in her face.

Driver Sheila Watkins suffered cuts to her face and neck just hours after the Home Secretary met her colleagues to hear how they are regularly coming under attack from stone-throwing yobs.

Mr Blunkett visited Newport bus station on Friday morning and pledged to rebuild the shattered confidence of bus drivers who are bearing the brunt of a plague of anti-social behaviour.

But at 5.30pm Mrs Watkins' bus was attacked in the Beechwood area, and she had to be X-rayed at the Royal Gwent Hospital to make sure there was no glass in her face after the attack.

That incident was the latest of 45 cases of stone throwing in the last few months which have left a number of Newport Transport drivers with minor injuries.

Mrs Watkins told the Argus: "I have been working for Newport Transport for two years and this is the first time I have had anything like this happen. "I have kids throwing stones but it's the first time that a brick has been thrown through the window.

"I can't explain the feeling of something hitting the doors and glass coming back in your face, it was terrible. I don't know how I did it but I just moved the bus and stopped it safely automatically."

She added: "At the moment I am trying to take every day as it comes and see how I get on back on the bus.

"I don't know how I feel about getting back behind a wheel but I have got to do it - it's like riding a bike."

Trevor Roberts, managing director of Newport Transport, said: "Somebody is going to get killed and that could quite easily have been on Friday night. These people don't think what the consequences are."

He hopes that the new police community safety officers who are set to start travelling on buses would help. "Staff are behind it, police are behind it and we are behind it and hopefully we can make a real difference," he said.