A Hampshire police Inspector has said that he "commends" the members of public who helped on the scene after passengers went through a "terrifying" experience when a bus crashed into a river.
One of Bluestar's double-decker buses serving the College 607 route crashed through railings on Bishopstoke Road and drove into the River Itchen just before 10am this morning.
Inspector Tester said: “We believe that everyone, every passenger on the bus, was a student heading to Barton Peveril College.
“And I would stress at this point that all of those people, their families, have been notified, and that has all been done so they are in touch with their loved ones.”
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Inspector Tester added that the police's immediate investigation will pinpoint why the bus left the road.
"We hope to open the road within 12 hours. That is our best hope," he said.
“We will do the best we can to shorten that but, as you’ll appreciate, we have to do a thorough examination of the scene, and then there’s a complex recovery of getting the bus out of the river.”
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He praised the bravery of members of the public and emergency services who helped at the scene.
Inspector Tester said: “There was a lot of bravery shown by many people who were first on scene, who didn’t have training to work in water and weren’t equipped, but quickly backed up by our fire and ambulance colleagues who did have the right training to make it safe and make it a safe working environment.”
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A total of 20 people have been confirmed to be onboard the bus, 19 of which were passengers.
Inspector Tester added that several people including the driver were trapped on board when emergency services arrived.
He said: “There were a large number of specialist resources helping to get people out of the bus.
“Some people had got themselves out of the bus, and it was obviously important to us to triage the injured people, to assess the people who were still stuck in the bus, and to make sure we had accounted for everyone.”
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