Teacher in coma after Alps crash

Max Bishop has been put into a coma by medics

A teacher at a Shropshire school is in a coma in hospital after a coach taking children home from a skiing trip crashed in the French Alps.

Father-of-two Max Bishop, 50, an IT teacher at the Kingsland Grange School in Shrewsbury, is in intensive care in hospital in Grenoble.

The coach, with 42 children and adults on board, skidded on black ice throwing the teacher through the windscreen.

The children, aged 9-13, were said to be traumatised by the accident.

The accident happened between La Grave and Mizoens when the party was returning home from the annual school skiing trip. The coach was on its way to Grenoble airport.

The front of the coach was destroyed in the accident

A gendarmerie officer said that the coach had skidded on ice, colliding with barriers on both sides of the road, but had remained upright.

The 22 children on board escaped with only minor injuries and returned home on Friday.

Two of the parents on board the coach were trained doctors and helped to treat Mr Bishop before he was airlifted to hospital.

His wife Lisa and his brother were at his bedside following a two- hour operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.

Mr Bishop, from Brosley near Shrewsbury, who has been a teacher at the school for 18 years, was described as the life and soul of the school.

Headteacher Martin James said: "He has stabilised. They have put him in a coma which apparently is a common thing to help the brain recover.

"He will be in that state for several days, it's called a controlled coma state.

"It's been a traumatic event for the children and adults that where on the trip. They were very upset, subdued, not wanting to talk about it at this stage, but I think they will and we'll be listening."

Children were being offered counselling and are due to return to classes on Tuesday after the Christmas holiday.