Firefighters battled to free injured passengers trapped on the top deck of a bus which ploughed into a kitchen shop on a busy London high street today.
The driver allegedly told passengers he had lost consciousness before the crash at about 7am, and emergency services said a total of ten patients had been treated.
About a dozen passengers were on the bus at the time of the crash, and witnesses saw smoke coming from underneath - leading to fears that it might have set on fire.
Firefighters with cutting gear managed to rescue two women trapped on the top deck of the bus, adding that the passengers were 'both conscious and breathing'.
Andrew Matthews, 34, of Wandsworth Town, said he was one of around a dozen passengers on the bus, adding: 'I was on the top floor at the back, fortunately.
'I wedged myself in, bracing myself. As soon as the bus came to a stop there was yelling, screaming.
I noticed a lady wedged in the front right-hand side. She was screaming for help. There was a lot of blood.'
'He said he blacked out before the bus hit the shop. He doesn't remember hitting anything. The paramedic told me they think he had some kind of fit.'
Ms Mullineux, 40, who was on her way to work at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, said: 'I was on the bottom deck near the second set of doors.
'I was on my phone looking at something. I looked up. I realised we were crashing. It was all happening in slow motion, it was very surreal.
'I braced myself, thinking "oh my God, I am going to die". But then I was like, "no, I am not going to die", as we started to stop.
'But because it was glass, it gave way. And that's why those two people at the front of the bus, on the top deck, are still alive. All I remember is a really sharp turning and thinking, what's going on?'
She added: 'I could see it all happening. I didn't run towards the bus driver because people were going that way.
'People were getting off the bus, there was a lot of commotion. My thinking was, I need to get up the stairs.
'I went on the top of the stairs. There was a lady up there. I have got her blood all over me. She was bad. She was crushed to about her waist.
'I couldn't see her legs - the bus was crushed in. I was with her, and she gave me her phone. There was a guy there. He was panicking a little bit.
'I said, 'I am a nurse, let me in'. She was in her 40s. She was quite badly injured, there was blood everywhere. She was conscious. She was panicking.
'I can't remember her name. She was blonde, her hair was shoulder length.
'I would have stayed with her regardless, but someone was shouting 'fire', and I could smell smoke. I could see smoke coming out underneath.
I started asking her questions about could she feel, was she in pain. I was trying to calm her down. And then someone said there is a fire on the bus, and took my hand and pulled me downstairs.
'I saw them go towards the front, to the driver. We bashed the door in and pulled him out. He was conscious at that point.
'And we took him to the side, and we pulled someone else out. He was in his 40s or 50s. He passed out. We think we had a fit.
'He has gone to hospital, and so have the other two ladies. My speculation is he had a fit. But he doesn't remember.
'He passed out. He got the biggest shock when he woke up. When people went over to him they thought he was dead because his eyes were rolled back in his head.
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