One man has died and more than 60 people have been injured in a crash between a bus and a car in Staffordshire.

The double decker reportedly hit a car in the village of Alton, Staffordshire, on the bridge over the River Churnet, and plunged down a steep embankment.

The West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman Murray McGregor said that one woman was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition and 20 more were taken to hospital for medical treatment.

Mr McGregor said all 71 people on the coach had now been accounted for.

He said the coach driver, a man from Lincolnshire, was one of the more seriously injured casualties.

The passengers were Lithuanian, South African and Polish.

Fifteen people were taken to Queen's Hospital, Burton upon Trent, and four were taken to Stafford Hospital.

A spokeswoman for University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust said: "We have received a total of nine patients from the incident at Alton. Of those nine, one has now been discharged. Two are in a critical condition. Three are in a serious but stable condition and three are stable."

A further 44 patients are being treated by medics at the scene.

Ten ambulances, 25 fire crew, and two air ambulances have been used in the rescue.

Chief Inspector John Maddox, from Staffordshire Police, said officers were trying to establish what caused the crash.

"The bus was coming down a steep hill towards the bridge at the bottom, and from what I can see at the scene, that bus has not managed to go round the bend, and has careered through a wall and down a drop into a garden," he said.

Chief Inspector Maddox said preliminary inquiries suggested that the coach crashed into two parked vehicles before coming to rest in the garden of a house 10ft below the road.

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