London bus crash: Casualties after double-decker smashes into shop

'I noticed a lady wedged in the front right-hand side. She was screaming for help. There was a lot of blood'

A double-decker bus has crashed into a shop on a busy London high street, leaving two female passengers trapped on the upper deck.

A total of nine people suffered minor injuries when the bus hit the building in Lavender Hill, near Clapham Junction railway station in south-west London shortly before 7am.

The route 77 bus driver has been taken to a south London hospital and the two passengers were eventually rescued from the top deck.

Police said paramedics had treated "a number of passengers" at the scene.

London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service and the Metropolitan Police at the scene of the crash in Lavender Hill, near Clapham Junction train station (Brendan Pfahlert/PA)

One passenger reported the driver said he "blacked out" before the collision.

Photos on social media showed the bus on the pavement and smashed into the front of the Poggen Pohl Kitchen Design Centre.

Glass lay shattered across the ground and paramedics could be seen tending to people on the top deck.

Firefighters with cutting gear appeared to be trying to cut the trapped passengers free from the top of the bus.

Andrew Matthews, 34, of Wandsworth Town, told the Press Association he was one of around a dozen passengers on the bus.

He said: "I was on the top floor at the back, fortunately.

"I noticed the bus drifting. I heard a smash and saw the roof of the shop going through [the bus] from the front left. It went to the fourth or fifth row.

"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."

Amy Mullineux, 40, a nurse from Wandsworth Common, was also on the bus and said the driver told her he had lost consciousness before the crash.

"I spoke to him. 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."

Solange Morin, 33, who lives close to the scene and was hoping to catch the bus before she saw it crash, said: "I saw this woman [in the bus] shouting and banging on the glass.

"Everybody shouted 'fire, fire'. I went on to the bus. I talked to her and was holding her hands.

"She was pinned. I wouldn't have been able to get her out.

"She was so scared because people were shouting fire. There was a lot of smoke."

Police said there were no life-threatening or life-changing injuries.

London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service and the Metropolitan Police were on the scene.

Transport for London said a "full investigation is under way".