School skiing trip in coach crash

A coach carrying teachers and students from an Essex school home from a ski trip has crashed in France.

Six children and a coach driver were taken to hospital but no-one was seriously injured.

The vehicle left the road and overturned beside the A25 motorway near Wormhout, between Lille and Dunkirk, at around 0510 BST.

The students from Colchester's St Helena school, their teachers and drivers are waiting for another coach.

Headteacher Kevin Prince, who was not on the trip, said: "I'm very grateful that all the children are well and that there were no major injuries.

The coach had been travelling back from the skiing holiday in Innsbruck, Austria.

A spokeswoman for Essex County Council said the party managed to clamber out of the vehicle through a window.

"There weren't any major injuries, apart from cuts and bruises.

The Foreign Office said both drivers and all the pupils and teachers are waiting for a replacement coach to arrive to bring them back to the UK on Saturday night.