A hero schoolboy helped haul his badly injured classmates from a crashed school bus.

Fifteen-year-old Alex Sanderson, aged 15, was on the white minibus which swerved through a crowd of sixth formers standing by the side of the road.

He bravely led fellow pupils, who were bleeding and crying, from the badly damaged bus.

The Year 10 pupil at English Martyrs School, Hartlepool, said he was thrown forward after the coach hit a tree.

He said: "We were in the coach travelling along Catcote Road. All of a sudden it swerved, went up the kerb and smashed into a tree.

"The seat just jumped up and I was thrown into the seat in front of me."

Alex, who was sitting in the back seat, said once the shock of the impact had receded the next thing he remembered was mayhem.

He said that once he realised he was unhurt his first thought was for his sister Katie, aged 12, who was sitting in the seat just in front of him.

"I leant over to Katie and seemed alright and I told her to get off the bus.

"Then I opened the emergency door and told everyone else to get off too.

"It was just mayhem. Everyone was screaming and there was a lot of smoke. I just shouted and told everyone to get off the bus.

"Katie came across and I helped her down the step. And then I helped the other pupils get down.

"There were children with broken bones and broken noses.

"It was a horrible sight. It was like something from a movie. It's not the kind of thing you expect to happen to you."

It wasn't until everyone had got down that Alex realised that there were two children trapped under the bus.

He said that he understood they were both Year Seven children.

"It was awful. There was children screaming and there were kids standing around in a state of shock."

His dad Paul, 42, a foreman at a Pout and Foster's scrap yard spoke proudly of his son's brave actions.

"We're proud of him he did well. It's a terrible thing to happen."

Paul recalled how his wife Julie, 41, a housewife had rung him to tell him that Alex and Katie had been involved in the smash.

He said: "I was so pleased my two were alright.

"But our thoughts are with the children and the families of the children who were badly hurt"

Julie learnt of the news when Alex telephoned her to tell her what had happened.

She immediately drove up to the school when she heard the news and eventually managed to be reunited with the children.

Paul said: "It's such a relief that they are okay."