Taxi driver attacked customer in vicious assault at Rome airport.

Rome city hall has begun the process to revoke the licence of a taxi driver who broke a customer's nose in a recent assault outside Fiumicino airport.

The customer for the meter to be turned on but the taxi driver refused, removing the passenger's luggage from the car before another customer was ushered into the taxi by an attendant.

Video footage showed the first customer knocking on the back window of the taxi, presumably asking for an explanation, when the driver got out of the car and knocked the customer to the ground, breaking his nose.

Footage of the assault, which showed the complete indiffence of other taxi drivers and the attendant, went viral on social media and has been widely condemned. The taxi driver behind the attack is currently suspended.

Rome airport authority Aeroporti di Roma expressed its full solidarity with the victim of the "incredible and unjustified episode, which has nothing to do with the behavior of the several thousand taxi drivers who carry out their work correctly and in compliance with the rules every day in Rome and at the airport."

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi said: "What happened is intolerable. The offices of Roma Capitale acted promptly against the person responsible for this brutal aggression. It must be clear that those who are guilty of these crimes are punished."