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Ten people were injured when a train service replacement coach hit a railway bridge in Essex.

The crash happened on Station Road in Manningtree at about 1800 GMT on Sunday. One man who was trapped in the bus had to be cut free by fire crews.

Other passengers suffered minor injuries and all 10 were taken to Colchester General Hospital.

National Express East Anglia said train services were running normally and they would carry out an investigation.

There were 41 people on board the 51-seat coach when it crashed. Most of the injuries were caused by flying glass.

The railway line was closed while the emergency services dealt with the crash.

Manningtree: Driver to be reported after bus crash horror

A coach driver whose vehicle hit a bridge, injuring 10 people, will be reported for driving offences, police said this afternoon.

The bus, which was a rail replacement service between Ipswich and Colchester, collided with the bridge close to Manningtree Railway Station just after 6pm last night.

Police said there were 41 people on the 52-seater bus when the crash happened.

A spokesman for Essex Police said that the driver, who suffered a head injury and was taken to Colchester General Hospital, would be ^reported for driving offences to the Crown Prosecution Service^.

A total of ten passengers were taken to hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich with minor facial injuries, thought to have been caused by flying glass. A waiting area at the railway station was converted into a medical room for paramedics to help those hurt before they were transferred to hospital.

All of the casualties are understood to have been released from hospital last night.

Peter Meades, a spokesman for train operator National Express East Anglia, said: ^As far as I understand there were no passengers detained overnight in hospital and they have now all been released. We continue to provide care and support to those who were affected. There were a handful of people who did not wish to continue with their journeys last night and we are helping them with their travel arrangements today.

^At Manningtree there is a relatively low bridge and for higher vehicles there is an alternative route. It would appear that the driver has taken the wrong route and we need to find out why that happened. We source our replacement coach and bus services through our suppliers and we need to make sure that an incident like this does not happen again.^

Firefighters were also called to help free one person from the stricken vehicle. They were not injured but were unable to get off the bus because of its position.

One of the injured bus passengers told last night how the drama unfolded, and said it was lucky nobody was more seriously hurt in the crash.

Jamie Barker, 29, formerly of Ipswich but now of Hockley in Essex, said there was a huge crash as the bus hit the bridge. ^It was just an almighty crash, really really loud. I heard the glass smash,^ he said.

Mr Barker said there was screaming. He said: ^Everyone was totally in shock.^

The bus had been ferrying passengers from Ipswich to Colchester while engineering work was carried out on the rail line.

The A137 road was fully reopened shortly after 8pm.

Mr Meades also stressed it had no impact on the rail line itself. There had been scheduled engineering work on the line between Colchester and Stowmarket throughout the day, and the rail replacement service had been operating from Ipswich.

Yep, I just checked Google Earth and the location is indeed one of those rare crossings where there is an underpass and a level crossing on the same road.

Not so rare in East Anglia. There's another at Ely and probably more besides.

Does anyone know what the headroom is?

It presumably takes nothing much bigger than a Transit.