Vietnamese bus line Phuong Trang said on Friday it sacked a male attendant for sexually harassing a female passenger as they were traveling from the south-central province of Khanh Hoa to Ho Chi Minh City earlier this week.

The bus line also apologized to the female victim via a phone call, according to its communication representative.

The victim, only known as H.L., quickly reported the sexual harassment to the company’s leaders after it happened, as well as recounting the incident on her Facebook on June 6.

L. said in the post she took a Phuong Trang sleeper bus from Khanh Hoa Province’s Ninh Hoa District on the night of June 5, heading to Mien Dong (Eastern) Bus Station in Ho Chi Minh City. A trip on this route normally takes 12 hours to complete.

The female passenger fell asleep after boarding, and only woke up at 2:00 am on Thursday, as she felt the male attendant, who was lying on the bunk next to hers, was touching her.

According to the Facebook post, the man made her to grab his genitals, touched her across her body, and kissed her while she was sleeping.

But her first reaction was not shouting for help. Instead, L. only turned her back towards the man, “pretending that I was still sleeping even though  I was very frightened,” she wrote.

“I knew I should not have done nothing in such a situation but I was just too shocked to react as it was the first time that happened to me.”

As the man kept on touching her body, L. stopped pretending to sleep and stared at the attendant. To her shock, the man made a silence gesture and opened his wallet, “as if he was going to give me money to buy my silence.”

The attendant left, but returned shortly thereafter and repeated his harassment when the female passenger went back to sleep, according to L.’s account.

This time L. yelled at the man and asked the driver to turn the bus’ lights on.

All of the other passengers turned to look at her and the bus attendant, and quickly got back to what they were doing, L. recalled.

As everyone knew of his act, the bus attendant kept on apologizing to L. and quickly got to the back of the vehicle.

Upon arriving at Mien Dong Bus Station, L. called the Phuong Trang’s hotline to report the incident, “but no one would pick up my call.”

She then found the phone number of Phuong Trang’s management board and successfully filed a complaint about her unpleasant experience.

Addressing the issue on Friday afternoon, the Phuong Trang communications representative admitted that its employee had sexually harassed the passenger, adding that the attendant in question was sacked after the company verified the complaint made by L.

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