2 Feb 2015

Five injured as roof ripped off London bus

Two people are taken to hospital after the number 91 bus has its roof completely ripped off in central London.

The bus is believed to have hit a tree whilst travelling down Kingsway, Holborn on Monday morning. Pictures taken after the incident show handrails and seats exposed on the top deck, with the severed roof hanging off the back of the bus.

Builder Billy Comfort, 21, who was working across the road from the scene, said: “I saw the bus drive into a tree and the roof came off.

“There was one gentleman whose nose was bleeding holding a handkerchief to his face. There was a man and a woman at the back of the bus looking petrified.

“I couldn’t believe it, it’s not what you expect to see on a Monday. I could see a man at the front of the bus and this couple at the back who stayed seated there for 20 minutes to half an hour after the roof came off.”

Picture: Aryelle Hendricks

At the scene London Fire Brigade station manager Gary Squires said: “Those involved were very lucky to escape serious injury.”

The 91 bus runs between Crouch End and Trafalgar Square.

London School of Economics (LSE) student Mr Meade said he turned around when he heard a crash.

He said: “I saw the roof fall down off the side of the bus, and the glass shatter everywhere. The passengers seemed to be sitting there pretty stunned as you’d expect. Police seemed to handle it very well.”

Picture: The view the driver of the bus would have had just before the incident

A London ambulance service spokesman said: “We treated five patients. We treated two patients for facial injuries, they were taken to St Thomas’s Hospital.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said passengers and a motorist had been hurt, adding: “Enquiries are under way to ascertain the circumstances of the collision.”