More than 20 people have been taken to hospital - including a woman in intensive care - after a school bus "gave way" on a grass verge and rolled down an embankment.

Almost 50 people had to be treated by ambulance crews after the crash on Holme Lacy Road in Hereford shortly after 8.20am.

The driver and 25 passengers - most of them young children - were taken to Hereford County Hospital with cuts and bruises. Some are thought to have suffered possible fractures.

A doctor who has been treating some of the victims taken to the hospital, Dr Malcolm Russell, told Sky News it was a "distressing scene".

He said there had been "a lot of minor bumps and bruises" and "a number of potentially more seriously injured casualties".

"A lot of children were covered in mud, a few of them were bleeding," he said.

"We're just very glad that the vast majority of children involved have minor injuries."

A spokeswoman for bus operator PW Jones Coaches said: "The coach had pulled over to stop on a grass verge and it gave way."

She said the female driver was being treated in intensive care.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said the driver had been trapped in the bus before being released with the help of firefighters.

She was treated for chest and abdominal injuries and was kept still with a neck collar and spinal board.

A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: "Crews arrived to find a bus at the bottom of an embankment lying on its left-hand side. All of the passengers on board had managed to get out of the bus before the crew's arrival."

Another bus was used to take about 20 pupils to their schools, believed to be Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School and St Mary's Roman Catholic High School.

Sara Catlow-Hawkins, headteacher at Bluecoat School, said four of her pupils were involved - and all were left "shaken", with cuts and bruises.

She said: "Some were able to leave with their parents while others were treated in hospital.

"The students behaved and worked with each other in a tremendously supportive way, the two schools worked well together and the emergency services were superb."