TO cries of "My nan can throw better than that" another ham sandwich was launched from the top window of a yellow bus.

On Tuesday afternoon I witnessed junior war. Following recent reports that certain Yellow Bus services to and from Harewood Avenue, Bournemouth, may be suspended due to antisocial behaviour, I went along to see for myself.

As I waited by the bus stop in Harewood Avenue, pupils from Portchester School were choosing the best ammunition to launch at children from St Peter's School on the way home.

Talk at the bus stop was that a 13-year-old had just been arrested outside Portchester for smashing the window of a bus.

There were three play-fights even before I boarded the number 33 outside Avon-bourne School, with boys running into the road to escape each other.

And sure enough, when we passed St Peter's School food missiles were hurled from - and at - the bus: from cheese and ham sandwiches to a variety of fruit and yoghurt, to less pleasant spitting.

The ground below became littered with leftover packed lunches, and on the bus the scenario was not much better as a mini sandwich fight broke out.

Sandwiches were hurled and smeared on one child's head, and all the while the four boys who started the food fight were swearing and shouting at the back of the bus. The presence of a teacher outside St Peter's School temporarily quelled the violence, but once we turned the corner the food war started again.

When we stopped behind another bus, the children at the front banged on the window to get the attention of the passengers in front.

And as we drove away pupils leaned out of the left-hand windows, making rude gestures at the children below.

Though the behaviour was boisterous and the language foul, the atmosphere was un-threatening and high-spirited.

The public sat on the ground floor of the bus and, apart from me, the only other passengers on the top floor were students from St Peter's, Portchester and one from Avonbourne.

Many of the children sat quietly and watched the trouble around them, but there were eight ring-leaders, and I was surprised that the one with the worst language was a girl who looked no older than 13.

It was an experience, and for a woman in her 20s not an intimidating one. But who knows how more vulnerable people might interpret such boisterous behaviour.