PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As school was dismissed at Hope Partnership for Education middle school in North Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, gunfire struck a SEPTA bus nearby.
Around 2:30 p.m., a bullet passed through the front of a Route 23 bus near where the driver was seated. SEPTA officials report that no one on the bus was injured.
Three schools at the site were placed on lockdown. Students and their parents could be seen leaving as detectives taped off the area.
"No one was hit, to my knowledge," said Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore. "We're very lucky. No one was hit by gunfire."
The bus was a block away from the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Huntingdon Street at the time of the incident. Shortly afterward, police had Huntingdon Street shut down.
"I was told up to 50 rounds were fired. I don't know how many weapons. I don't know what the calibers were," Vanore said.
"They said rounds did hit cars … I think one of the schools might have even been struck, but we're very lucky no one was hit by gunfire."
Police are investigating where the gunfire came from and who was the intended target. They were focusing their investigation near Warnock Street, where the school is located.
