Bus-tram smash was 'like a bomb'

WITNESSES TELL OF ‘LOUD BANG' AS TRAM AND DOUBLE-DECKER COLLIDE HEAD-ON INTO EACH OTHER LEAVING PASSENGERS HURT

- THOMAS GEORGE

A HEAD-ON crash between a tram and bus in the city centre left four people injured.

Witnesses in and around Piccadilly Gardens at the time of the smash yesterday afternoon told of hearing a 'loud bang! "I thought it was a bomb so I started running," said Ibrahim Yousif. "Everyone was crowded round the bus and the tram.

"People were getting off the tram. Five minutes later, the police came and started taping off the road." Police, paramedics, firefighters and an air ambulance descended on the scene, outside Betfred at the top of Mosley Street, shortly before 2.15pm.

An air ambulance was spotted landing on the grass in nearby Piccadilly Gardens.

An eyewitness told the M.E.N.: "There were loads of sirens and then we heard the helicopter. It's looks bad - like a headon crash between the bus and the tram.

"Firefighters look like they are cutting the front off the bus." Workers at shops in the area said they saw a forensic tent being put up inside the cordon.