logo
Two children and two adults remain in hospital after school bus crash that killed a boy, 10, when 70-seater overturned and slid down 20ft slope

Two children and two adults remain in hospital after school bus crash that killed a boy, 10, when 70-seater overturned and slid down 20ft slope

Daily Mail​5 days ago
Two children and two adults are still in hospital after the horrific school bus crash that killed a 10-year-old boy.
A 70-seater a coach carrying Minehead Middle School pupils on Thursday crashed off the road, flipped onto its roof and slid 20ft down a steep bank.
A total of 21 people were injured in the crash as it drove year 5 pupils back from an end of term trip to the zoo.
Four children and three adults remain were in hospital - the two remaining youngsters were taken to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children by air ambulance following the accident.
A police spokesperson said the investigation into the crash was ongoing.
One boy, Jayden, who was on the bus and suffered a suspected broken collarbone in the crash, visited Minehead Middle School to lay flowers at the scene earlier today with his mother Kim.
He said: 'I just remember climbing up the hill to get back on the road and that's it.
On his injuries, Jayden said: 'I'm alright, it just hurts.'
A 70-seater a coach carrying Minehead Middle School pupils on Thursday crashed off the road, flipped onto its roof and slid 20ft down a steep bank. Pictured: People lay floral tributes at the scene
She told the BBC she has had to break the news of the child's death to Jayden, adding: 'He's lost a friend.'
Emergency services, including five helicopters, rushed to the scene on the A396 in Somerset to free passengers who had become trapped inside the bus.
An off-duty firefighter travelling behind the coach was able to save the lives of children by immediately starting to free them minutes after the collision.
But he has said he 'couldn't sleep' because of the scenes he witnessed.
Alan Jones, 64, ferried passengers to safety by driving them to a safe hub on his quad bike.
Mr Jones, who now works as a trainer and lives at East Harwood Farm, said he took a total of eight adults and children to the Rest and Be Thankful Inn in Wheddon Cross.
'They're just so innocent and it wasn't their fault. It was a sorry sight,' he said.
'When you hear it's children from a middle school, I should think everybody dropped everything like I did, because it's just something about children - they're pretty helpless, really.
'I think it would have been wrong not to try and help. I was there in under 10 minutes.
'When I got there, the road was closed and the police were everywhere. Everybody was just looking at the bus.
'I didn't know there were any fatalities at the time, but I knew there were children still in the bus, and all of the police officers were just basically around the bus and there wasn't anybody else about, really; I was the only local person there.'
Dozens of pupils, parents and local residents who laid flowers outside the front gates of the school - which closed on Friday following the tragedy.
The school's head teacher, Laura Mackie, was among those laying flowers.
'I'm thinking of my staff team who are amazing, dedicated, and all of our wonderful students that have been affected and impacted by this awful, awful incident.
'It's just been horrific,' she told the BBC.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump news at a glance: president dismisses continued Epstein and Maxwell furore as ‘not a big thing'
Trump news at a glance: president dismisses continued Epstein and Maxwell furore as ‘not a big thing'

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Trump news at a glance: president dismisses continued Epstein and Maxwell furore as ‘not a big thing'

Donald Trump continued to face questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein as he landed in Scotland ahead of meeting British prime minister Keir Starmer and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen. The US president denied reports that he was briefed about his name appearing in the Epstein files after landing on Friday evening local time. He was also asked about the justice department's questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell and suggestions he might offer her clemency. Trump: 'I don't know anything about the conversation, I haven't really been following it.' 'A lot of people have been asking me about pardons [for Maxwell]. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons' he went on. 'You're making a very big thing over something that's not a big thing.' Here are the key US politics stories today: The furore over Donald Trump's ties with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continued on Friday as new revelations about the pair's relationship threatened to mire the president's golfing trip to Scotland, where he arrived late on Friday. After landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport at about 8.30pm local time, the US president denied reports that he had been briefed about his name appearing in files pertaining to the case against the late Epstein. He also said he had not 'really been following' the justice department's interview with Epstein's convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Read the full story The EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland. Trump landed in Scotland on Friday evening before the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. He said he was also planning to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Saturday. Read the full story The deputy US attorney general, Todd Blanche, held a second in-person meeting on Friday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Blanche had confirmed the two met behind closed doors in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, at the federal prosecutor's office within the federal courthouse in the state capital, and they met again on Friday. Read the full story Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio was driving to his landscaping job with his mother and two male friends when they were pulled over by the Florida highway patrol. In one swift moment, a traffic stop turned into a violent arrest. Video of the incident captured by Laynez-Ambrosio, an 18-year-old US citizen, appears to show a group of officers in tactical gear working together to violently detain the three men. The video has put fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used by US law enforcement officials as the Trump administration sets ambitious enforcement targets to detain thousands of immigrants every day. Read the full story The White House has announced that it will release $5.5bn in frozen education funds back to US states. That announcement came on Friday after Donald Trump's administration decided to abruptly withhold the congressionally approved funds a day before their 1 July release for the 2025-26 school year. South Park co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest response to anger from the White House over this season's premiere, which showed a naked Trump in bed with Satan. Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president's first term. Catching up? Here's what happened on 24 July 2025.

Revealed: Two in every five phones thefts across Europe happen in the UK as government battles to get to grips with rise in county lines snatcher gang chaos
Revealed: Two in every five phones thefts across Europe happen in the UK as government battles to get to grips with rise in county lines snatcher gang chaos

Daily Mail​

time2 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Revealed: Two in every five phones thefts across Europe happen in the UK as government battles to get to grips with rise in county lines snatcher gang chaos

Two in every five phone thefts across Europe happen in the UK, new figures claim, as the government attempts to grapple with county line gangs turning to phone snatching. And harrowing figures show London is at the centre of the snatching chaos, with one in every six phones nabbed across the continent happening in the capital, according to American insurance firm, SquareTrade. After surveying data across its 12 European markets, it found despite Brits only accounting for 10 percent of their customers on the continent, they made up 39 percent of all phone loss claims. Nearly half of phone theft in the UK happened in London, according to the gadget insurance firm, with Birmingham following in second place. Phone snatching incidents also occurred more frequently in summer months and Christmas, aligning with busier travel months, shopping periods as well as festivals. Britain has become 'leading country for missing devices in Europe', the company told The Times, with claims of phone theft has quadrupling since June 2021. Latest statistics from the Crime Survey for England and Wales also indicated 'theft from a person' rose by half in the last year to 483,000 incidents, with the most common object snatched in the category being mobile phones. In 2024, 70,371 phones were stolen in London alone, and in 2020, around 20,000 phone thefts were reported, however, due to a lack of reporting from victims, the figures are likely to be higher. Last September, the Home Office promised to crackdown on phone thefts by increasing patrols in the most at risk areas, while adding Operation Opal, the national police intelligence unit, would also be honing in on crooks. Phone thefts are estimated to cost Londoners and its visitors at least £ 70million, according to the Metropolitan Police. The mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan was also accused by City Hall Conservatives of 'virtually ignor[ing the problem, even though he remained adamant he was continuing to support the force with 'record funding' to tackle the epidemic. The most stolen devices were iPhones, SquareTrade reported, with claims on average totalling to £1,200. The iPhone 15 Pro Max was the most commonly stolen device, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max coming in second place, followed by the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Kevin Gillan, the managing director, of Square TradeEurope, told The Times: 'July creates a perfect storm — festivals, holidays, and crowded spaces increase the risk of theft. London is especially vulnerable, and the UK now leads Europe in phone theft claims.' It comes as county lines gangs have turned to snatching phones instead of dealing drugs to feed a growing £70m a year epidemic. Gang members are grooming vulnerable young people to steal mobiles on Britain's streets due to unprecedented overseas demand and softer sentences for those who are caught. Stolen phones are being shipped abroad in bulk and sold around the world, a police chief warned, with some 80 per cent of the 80,000 phones stolen every year in London ending up overseas. A Mail investigation tracked down a phone stolen from an estate agent on the capital's famous Baker Street across the globe to a high-rise block in Hong Kong, where it sat alongside hundreds of thousands of other handsets. And a police chief in charge suggested the likes of Apple and Google had the gift to stop the trade by making a phone worthless after being taken. At least 230 phones were stolen every day on average in the UK last year - twice as many as five years ago and rising all the time. London is the epicentre, making up roughly 75 per cent of phone thefts, but it is clear the problem is nationwide, with every major force recording thousands of stolen phones every year.

Hackers prove age verification systems on pornography sites can be bypassed in seconds
Hackers prove age verification systems on pornography sites can be bypassed in seconds

Sky News

time2 hours ago

  • Sky News

Hackers prove age verification systems on pornography sites can be bypassed in seconds

Ethical hackers have shown Sky News how new age verification systems can be bypassed on pornographic websites in a matter of seconds. On Friday, toughened rules came into force that mean companies hosting adult content online must block under-18s using "highly effective age verification". That could include AI tools that use pictures to estimate someone's age, bank or ID checks, or more technical solutions using browser cookies. But hours later, two ethical hackers demonstrated just how simple it is to get around the measures designed to protect young people on the internet. Using widely available technology, Chris Kubecka and Paula Popovici quickly accessed numerous pornography sites without ever verifying their ages. Their devices were running standard software, and the tricks they used were simple. This, Ms Kubecka said, showed the systems will not be effective at stopping under-18s from accessing explicit content online. The simplicity of their method was confirmed by multiple viewers, who contacted Sky News to say they had also managed to bypass the systems. One viewer said it had taken him "less than 30 seconds". 3:53 Although Sky News has verified the methods used by Ms Kubecka and Ms Popovici, we won't give details or name any software used. Some of the explicit websites they checked had not turned on any age verification, despite declaring in June that they would. In response to our findings, Ofcom said these checks "will help stop young children from stumbling across porn". The regulator added: "While the new rules have only been in place for a matter of hours, we will be actively assessing compliance to make sure platforms have age checks in place and that they are highly effective. "Companies that fall short can expect to face enforcement action." 1:36 A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology told Sky News: "We expect these laws to be robustly implemented by tech companies. If they fail to do so, the regulator is ready to take severe enforcement action, including tough fines." There is also a risk that age verification could push users towards more dangerous corners of the internet in search of pornography. By 10am on Friday, data suggested an extra 66,000 internet users in the UK had begun using the dark web. Ms Kubecka fears this number may only increase. "That is one of the concerns that I have because I don't want illegal or extreme content being normalised in our teens," she said. 1:22 Google Trends data shows searches for online tools to help people bypass age verification have surged, too. Ofcom told Sky News it had been clear that sites "must not encourage or direct users to get around age checks". "People should be aware that children and adults who use [certain software] to bypass age checks will not benefit from the wider protections offered by our online safety rules." Despite those warnings, in the days running up to the rules being enforced, advertising data shows companies were targeting UK users and promoting tools that could bypass the verification. "Platforms have clear legal obligations and must actively prevent children from circumventing safety measures, including blocking content that promotes ... workarounds targeting young users."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store