Two die after double-decker bus crashes into Sainsbury’s store

Anyone with information, or anyone who may be concerned about relatives, should contact police on 101.

An eight-year-old girl injured when a bus smashed into a supermarket, killing a pensioner and young boy, is in a life-threatening condition.

“She was taken on blue lights and under police escort to Birmingham Children’s Hospital after she had been given blood, pain relief and was anaesthetised and her airway maintained”.

Police have now confirmed that the boy, who has not yet been named, was seven-years-old and not eight was previously announced.

He said: “I was getting a few food from the shop opposite and I heard a loud bang”.

“People were running in various different directions out on the street and you could see the bus in the side of the supermarket”.

He said: “I think he was trying to stop but you could hear the bus accelerating”.

“I don’t know if the driver was trying to warn people to get out the way but it sounded like it hit the store with a few force”. It shows a woman screaming: “Oh my God, there is a kid pushing through the seat”, as local people went to the aid of those in the bus. “It was absolute chaos”, he said. We stood and looked at it but then we just got away from there.

“The only thing on people’s minds was the two kids stuck on the top, they couldn’t get out of the bus”.

A Stagecoach spokesman said yesterday: “No driver we employ is allowed behind the wheel of our buses without us being satisfied that they are fully qualified, safe and meet all necessary legal requirements”.

An air ambulance, paramedics, five ambulances and the Hazardous Area Response Team were all on the scene.

Last night there was no clue about what caused the bus to lose control or the condition of the bus driver.

Dad-of-three David Jackson, 29, was standing at a bus stop near Sainsbury’s minutes before it happened.

Five people were treated at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire – the bus driver, a man in his 50s, with neck and shoulder injuries; a man in his 20s with a broken arm; a man with a minor leg injury; a woman in her 60s with leg and arm injuries, and a man with a minor injury.

Superintendent Paul Keasey said the bus collided with a number of cars and a lamp post before crashing into the open supermarket in Trinity Street, Coventry.

Road closures were put in place after the crash while police carried out investigations but have now been lifted.