"A lot of people were screaming, they were shouting like they were going to die, the dust came through as if the bridge was going to collapse."

Those were the words of Henry Beaufort School pupil Jake Coates who was one of the 72 students onboard a double-decker bus as it collided with a railway bridge.

The incident took place at 8.10am today (September 10) in Wellhouse Lane, Headbourne Worthy.

Jake, who lives nearby and had just been picked up by the bus, said the driver had taken a shortcut because the service was running 10 minutes late.

The Year 10 pupil said: "The first thing I was thinking, had anyone been crushed on the top of the bus or anything really bad had happened up on the top.

"When we got out of the bus, I could see people jumping out of the back windows and workers from nearby were catching people who were jumping out the back.

"It was quite scary, I was really shocked, I didn't know if anyone was still inside the bus, trapped.”

He said some of his friends had suffered cuts to their legs and one to their top.

Jake said the bus was being driven by a new driver but he had not been going fast.

He continued: "The bus came this route today because it was a couple of minutes late, it might have been 10 minutes late, so it took a different... tried to take a shortcut, which didn't go well."

Another pupil Robert, another pupil at Henry Beaufort School, said he was uninjured but "shaken" after the crash.

The 15-year-old, who did not want to disclose his surname, told PA: "I was on the lower deck. I was on my phone when it actually happened. We went under the tunnel and I heard a crash, and I didn't think it was as major as it was, I didn't know what tunnel we were under.

"It took a little while to realise what was happening ... part of the roof fell down to the side of the bus that I was on.

"I waited for the people on the top deck to get off, and at that point I saw some of the bad injuries people had. I think everyone was in shock.

"When we got off the bus, everyone sat down on the grassy bank outside. People started to panic and phone parents, some people started to cry.

"It took like an hour maybe while everyone was sorted until we started to leave."