More than 30 people have been injured, six of them seriously, after a coach carrying Spanish students had its roof sheared off as it crashed into a low tunnel in northern France.

The incident happened at 5.30 Sunday morning at La Madeleine near Lille.

The injured were taken to hospital.

One student who had only been slightly injured described what happened:

“I was sleeping, I was with eyes closed. I suddenly heard a lot of sound and it smelled like smoke, and glass is broken, everywhere, people bleeding – a disaster.”

Dr. François Ducrocq, who attended the accident said the crash had obviously been “incredibly violent in nature” and had a happened when the majority of passengers had been asleep.

The coach with 59 people on board had been en route from Bilbao to Amsterdam.
Some reports say the driver was following the vehicles GPS directions and apparently failed to see the signs showing the maximum height of the tunnel.

Those uninjured were taken to a sports centre