Two passengers were taken to hospital and another 15 injured after a bus and coach crashed in the centre of Southampton.

Emergency services rushed to the accident on The Avenue near its junction with Burgess Road.

It involved a Bluestar double decker bus and a coach travelling southbound toward Southampton city centre.

South Central Ambulance Service sent a Hazardous Area Response Team as well as two double-manned ambulances and a Rapid Response Vehicle amid concerns that many of the 48 people on board the two vehicles had been seriously injured.

They treated 15 casualties from the bus for minor injuries and they checked over all 33 of the coach passengers.

Two of them were taken to Southampton General Hospital with spinal injuries.

More details of the accident, which happened at 5.45pm yesterday, emerged tonight.

It caused queues of traffic backed up in both directions as medics worked at the scene .

Police were called in to help ease the gridlock as motorists faced lengthy delays in to the early evening.

Last night they said four vehicles in total had been involved in the collision, which smashed the glass panels in the front of the double decker.

The number 1 Bluestar bus was on its way from Winchester to Southampton when the crash took place, having stopped en route at Compton, Otterbourne and Shawford and Chandler's Ford.

Nobody was available for comment from the company.